- Good Idea, Bad Start
- When Opportunity Comes Face to Face with Hard Work and Preparation
- End of an Era
- No Strategic Approach to Wealth Management
- Alarm Bells
- It's Hard to Grow Assets AND Enjoy the Fruits of Success at the Same Time!
- Our Wealth Represented More than Cash
- We Needed to Get a Handle on Our Investment Portfolio
- Introducing Strategic Wealth Management
- We Are Stewards, Not Owners, of Our Wealth
- Taking Control for the First Time
- Philanthropy Has Emerged as a Shared Interest Among Many Family Members
- Closer Family Ties
- The Wealth-Building Legacy of E.A. Stuart
- How My Dad Taught Me the Value of Money
- A Book About Strategic Wealth Management
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Philanthropy Has Emerged as a Shared Interest Among Many Family Members
Besides strengthening our bottom-line financial results, improved family communication and financial coordination has yielded other benefits. As our extended family has reconnected in recent years, we've rediscovered much about the wonderful Stuart family legacy and have come to appreciate our common family roots.
We found that many of us share a common interest in philanthropy. E.A. Stuart first set up a foundation back in 1937, and additional foundations have been established by virtually every generation of Stuarts since then. Today, these foundations focus the attention of family members on the needs of disadvantaged children, the elderly, at-risk inner city youth, schools, and other social issues. Stuart family members quietly give millions away each year in their capacities as foundation trustees and directors. Following in E.A. Stuart's footsteps, many of us also give substantial sums to charity from our own pockets and spend countless hours working with nonprofit organizations both large and small. Some of these causes are well known and prestigious, while others are small and support some of society's neediest people. I'll have much more to say about philanthropy as a family bonding agent and component of wealth management in subsequent chapters.