06/09/2026
Generational Wealth. You've heard the term, right? For most of us, it's not that we don't want to build it/have it. It's just that it seems unreachable. Kinda like building a snowman in June.
But what it I told you it is completely possible and that it's what I have built my entire practice around pursuing and helping others pursue?
Do you want to build a snowman?
(fantastic content that I edited for this post) Do your want to be like the Rockefellers or the Vanderbilts?
The Rockefellers and Vanderbilts were both among the wealthiest families in America in the 1800s. Today, the Rockefeller fortune is intact, estimated at more than $10 billion. The Vanderbilt fortune is largely gone.
The story of the Rockefellers and the Vanderbilts is primarily one of good (and bad) estate planning. But it’s also a story about life insurance and comprehensive financial planning. Life insurance is a key aspect of the Rockefeller estate plan. But the surprising news is that you don’t need Rockefeller-level money to fund an estate plan that can begin to span generations.
Admittedly, building such a plan is a complex and deeply personal exercise. However, by using some very well known and a couple of not so well known tools in the right ways, it’s possible to fund a multigenerational legacy at an approachable level. Whether it's a larger single payment for generational seed money or annual gift allowance gifts (this is almost always more advantageous), it's possible to get the ball rolling. Financial planning will help you understand how much and when the time is right to begin building this dream creator and realizer.
No single family member gets a single massive payout, but even with future inflation factored in, the single contribution (or annual gifts) could fund distributions of several thousand dollars or more for each descendant every year they are alive. That means someday a great-great-great-great grandchild could get a check from something you set up this year.
Your family would also have access to the growing cash value inside the insurance policies held by the trust. This can provide easy access to loans (which must be repaid) without dismantling the long-term legacy the trust was designed to protect.
There are really only three non-negotiable rules to making something like this work.
1. Families must use a trust or trusts to protect the principal. Allowing future generations too much access could result in a Vanderbilt situation.
2. The trust must be designed to distribute at a lower level than it grows over time to allow for generational growth.
3. The trust should be funded with time-tested strategies that balance tax-deferred growth with safety to protect the principle—permanent life insurance is key.
Beyond that, the rules are entirely personal and based on the wishes of the families that set something like this up. Perhaps you will want distributions to start when children become adults. Maybe you want to restrict distributions so they pay only for business opportunities or major life events like education, weddings or homes. These types of restrictions would likely result in higher amounts available for distribution. It might be you want to restrict distributions to certain things and allow loans for others. Loans from the trust could allow future generations access to capital without needing to save up a down payment. The point is that it’s entirely up to you and very customizable.
A large part of the Rockefeller trust is designed to pass on values as much as passing on wealth. The Rockefellers have a family constitution that directs how the descendants should think about money, focusing on a charitable and entrepreneurial mindset.
If you're interested in exploring a conservative, tax-efficient multigenerational wealth-transfer plan, it begins first with comprehensive financial planning. From there we can explore the hows, whys, and whens of generational wealth creation.
So, do you want to build a snowman?
