Please note that these are provided for non-commercial use only. We encourage you to read and share them, but they cannot be sold or repackaged for sale.
WEALTH COUNSELING
a guide for therapists and inheritors
Dennis Pearne, Ed.D.
with Barbara Blouin & Katherine Gibson
Inheriting wealth can and should be empowering. The gift of wealth is a valuable resource that may be used to live a fulfilling, integrated and productive life. However, the experiences of growing up with and inheriting wealth are frequently traumatic. Therapists often see inherited-wealth clients who exhibit excessive guilt, fear, shame, isolation and paralysis. These traumatic patterns can intensify with each succeeding generation that passes on family wealth. (18 pages)
Dennis Pearne, Ed.D, a clinical psychologist, has specialized in issues around inherited wealth for 20 years.
PASSING WEALTH ALONG TO OUR CHILDREN
emotional complexities of estate planning
REVISED EDITION
Margaret Kiersted, Barbara Blouin & Katherine Gibson
Estate planning can be fraught with emotionally charged decisions. As we weigh the risks and advantages of passing along significant assets to our offspring, we may encounter unexpected feelings about money, our children and ourselves. The fictional story of the Blackman family illustrates three dilemmas a family may face when making a will, each requiring a different solution. In the first, there is the son who is launched into the world with a solid marriage and career. Secondly, there is a young but intact son who has just graduated from college and, finally, there is the fragile, perhaps disabled, child who may never be able to cope in the world. The estate planner in this story finds creative ways to address each dilemma. (25 pages)
INHERITORS AND WORK
The Search for Purpose
A GUIDE FOR INHERITORS & WEALTHY PARENTS - Barbara Blouin
The absence of financial necessity and an overabundance of choices can make it hard for heirs to identify a calling in life. Traditionally, a first job that pays a living wage is a rite of passage into autonomy. But when young adults get hefty incomes from parents or grandparents, they are likely to question whether or not they could stand on their own. And from the sense dependency on their family inheritance, other feelings can arise such as low self-esteem, guilt, shame, and sometimes even paralysis.
This monograph addresses the question of how parents can best support their children in ways that empower rather than infantilize them. It explores how heirs themselves have overcome low motivation and developed a healthy work ethic that is essential to a sense of purpose.
It includes an appendix of useful questions for parents and heirs to consider in their search for purpose. (40 pages)
THE INHERITOR'S INNER LANDSCAPEHow Heirs Feel
Katherine Gibson - The Inheritance Project To generalize about how inherited wealth affects people runs the risk of inaccuracy; each person we interview describes a unique combination of responses to being an heir. Yet over and over we hear about fear, isolation, dis-empowerment, disconnection and guilt along a number of troublesome habits, ranging from self-deprivation to secrecy. Drawing extensively on anecdotes and advice from inheritors, this monograph maps out the emotional terrain heirs may face in coming to terms with their wealth. (14 pages)
FOR LOVE AND/OR MONEYThe Impact of Inherited Wealth on Relationships
Barbara Blouin As everyone discovers, close relationships expose unresolved feelings about one’s basic worth as a human being. For heirs this universal experience is complicated by the presence of money and the question of “Who does he/she love, me or my money?” Drawn from interviews with heirs, this monograph examines how inequities of wealth, especially in the case of unearned income, affect close relationships. Heirs speak openly about how they’ve managed or not to negotiate the complex terrain of power and control and the inevitable confusion about who gets to spend money and how. (43 pages)
COMING INTO MONEYPreparing Your Children for an Inheritance
Barbara Blouin
This monograph is for wealthy parents who are thinking about whether and how to give substantial money to their children as young adults. It discusses the perils of inheriting early and suggests how parents can make plans that help empower, not paralyze, their children. (57 pages)
WORKING WITH INHERITED-WEALTH CLIENTSA Guide for Professional Advisors
Margaret Kiersted This monograph familiarizes advisors with the emotional difficulties facing many inherited wealth clients. It identifies ways which communication between clients and professionals tends to break down, and offers strategies for making these relationships work better. (6 pages)
Interview with Barbara Blouin
Book Interview - 'The Legacy of Inherited Wealth'
by Joe Reilly
Family office consultant Joe Reilly interviews Barbara Blouin on the twentieth anniversary of her
landmark book The Legacy of Inherited Wealth, a book where heirs talk about their experiences,
in their own words, often over a lifetime.