Wealth Doesn't Fail in the Third Generation by Accident.
It fails because the plan was never coordinated, the documents were never updated, and the next generation was never prepared. Your FinancialTeam is built to prevent all three.
What we hear from families
Are our trusts actually doing what we think they're doing, or are we relying on documents no one has reviewed in years?
Are our children prepared to handle this responsibly, or are we just hoping it works out?
Is our tax strategy proactive, or are we finding out what we owe every April?
If something happened to one of us tomorrow, would the other know where everything is?
Are we giving enough away, or too much, or at the wrong time?
Are our trusts actually doing what we think they're doing, or are we relying on documents no one has reviewed in years?
Are our children prepared to handle this responsibly, or are we just hoping it works out?
Is our tax strategy proactive, or are we finding out what we owe every April?
If something happened to one of us tomorrow, would the other know where everything is?
Are we giving enough away, or too much, or at the wrong time?
Are our trusts actually doing what we think they're doing, or are we relying on documents no one has reviewed in years?
Are our children prepared to handle this responsibly, or are we just hoping it works out?
Is our tax strategy proactive, or are we finding out what we owe every April?
If something happened to one of us tomorrow, would the other know where everything is?
Are we giving enough away, or too much, or at the wrong time?
What Legacy Requires
Many families assemble capable professionals one at a time: a CPA, an estate attorney, someone to manage the investments. Each is excellent at their own work, but no one is coordinating the full picture. That gap is where wealth quietly erodes. Your FinancialTeam coordinates all of it, aligning your investment, tax, and estate decisions into a single strategy, so it still reflects your intentions across generations.
What This Looks Like In Practice
A Florida family came to us with $18M, most of it tied up in a single low-basis stock position and scattered across fourteen accounts and four trusts, with documents two generations out of date. But the real risk wasn't the clutter. That one position was compounding fast, and left where it was, its growth would eventually carry the family past their estate-tax exemption and leave their children an eight-figure tax bill.
So we froze it. The position moved into a Spousal Lifetime Access Trust, which locks in today's value and lifts all of its future growth out of the taxable estate. We structured that trust to run for Florida's 1,000-year statutory maximum, so the wealth passes to children and grandchildren outside the estate and GST tax system, not once but at every generation. Then the quieter work: we consolidated all fourteen accounts onto one platform and re-sequenced the family's withdrawals, which had been quietly leaking $60,000 a year in avoidable taxes.
Today they review everything in a single quarterly meeting instead of juggling five different advisors, and the position that was building toward a multimillion-dollar tax bill now compounds for their grandchildren, untouched by the transfer-tax system.
FirsTrust is an independent firm and is not affiliated with Adidas AG or its subsidiaries.
How the Dassler Family Chose to Protect Their Legacy
In 2014, the Dassler family chose FirsTrust to design a private Family Office with global investment access and independent oversight. Three generations of Adidas legacy wealth are now managed through the Adi Dassler Family Office.
If your wealth has outgrown ordinary advice, we should talk.
Legacy Planning FAQs
Legacy planning is driven by complexity, not a specific net worth threshold. If your family has estate planning needs, tax coordination across generations, or wealth transfer goals, your FinancialTeam can build a plan around those objectives.
The Trust & Estate specialist on your FinancialTeam acts as the architect of your estate plan, and works alongside your estate planning attorney to draft the documents.
Research shows that most family wealth fails to survive to the third generation, and it is rarely because of poor investments. It is usually due to lack of communication, unprepared heirs, or family conflict. Your FinancialTeam helps build governance frameworks, educate the next generation, and structure trusts in ways that encourage responsibility.
A dynasty trust is designed to hold assets during your lifetime, generate income during your retirement, and transfer them to your heirs in a manner you specifically authorize, with built-in protection and federal estate tax sheltering across multiple generations. Whether it fits your situation depends on the size and structure of your estate, your state of residence, and your multigenerational goals.
Yes. FirsTrust plans for the entire lifecycle, not just document creation. When the time comes, your FinancialTeam helps trustees and heirs execute the plan, navigate around probate, coordinate asset transfers, and ensure the transition happens according to your documented wishes.