Smart Planning, a few grandpas & an Einstein chat, 6 generations later…

  At our office we are fortunate to see some remarkable stories of good planning carrying across generations. Our part of this story starts as we met our then soon to retire client, a University of Idaho professor, over 3 decades ago.

  It was our delight to help him craft a creative and tax smart strategy to for his loved ones with their future income, educational goals and help charitable causes meaningful to the family. While finalizing this plan we heard the story that helped to put him in this good position.

  He spoke of his grandfather who did well when he invented the ‘hinged hospital bed’ as we know it today. This same grandpa thought ahead enough to commit to him a few thousand dollars of growth-oriented investments in 1924 when he was around 5 years old. By the time I met him almost 70 years later, that small amount of money had weathered the Great Depression, a World War, and other economic challenges and had grown into well into seven figures of value! It was fun to hear that context as we prepared to pass on that wealth.

  It is certainly a joy for me now to see how this good will and good planning continues to open doors for this family many generations later. If they could see it now, I’m pretty sure those grandpas would smile seeing their legacy’s continued investment in the latest round of great grandchildren’s college days to come.