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 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 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 This Looks Like In Practice
A family came to us with a $9 million estate, largely concentrated in a highly appreciated, low-basis stock. Their balance sheet was fragmented across 14 accounts and four outdated trusts. Our tax modeling showed that the asset's projected growth would push their gross estate past their lifetime exemption limits, creating a significant transfer tax liability.
We brought in the client's local estate attorney to implement a Spousal Lifetime Access Trust (SLAT). While outside counsel drafted the legal instruments, our team managed the estate architecture. We modeled the optimal gift amounts, executed the transfer of the concentrated equity to fund the trust, and ensured the assets were positioned to leverage Florida’s 1,000-year rule against perpetuities to shield future growth from the GST tax.
With the estate structure secured, we consolidated the remaining 14 accounts onto a unified reporting platform and restructured their income distribution sequence. That operational cleanup alone eliminated roughly $60,000 in annual income tax drag. Today, the family’s investment management, tax strategy, and estate plan are fully coordinated.
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.