When most people think about their legacy, they envision something left behind: a financial inheritance, a thriving business, or cherished family traditions passed to the next generation. But what if your legacy could be something you live, not just leave? This question has shaped how we work with clients to align their business, family, and financial goals.

The concept of living your legacy isn’t just philosophical; it’s practical. It’s about embracing the idea that the life you live today becomes the legacy you leave tomorrow. The reality is most people don’t think about it. If you’ve generated more wealth than you’re going to consume in your lifetime, and you have important people or causes in your life, why not use that excess wealth to create experiences with those people and impact your community now, while you’re here to participate?

In this article, I’ll share steps to take to start living your legacy now along with stories to inspire you.

How to Design and Live Your Legacy

Clarify What Matters Most

Your opportunity is to be careful and intentional about how you use your wealth. If you’re going to leave a legacy by design, then you better know yourself first. You need to become self-aware and get clarity around your vision, values and goals.

While many tools, books, and exercises exist to uncover values and create a vision, you can start by answering a simple question: What do I want?

While your initial response will likely tie to your current reality, you can continue peeling back layers by adding one simple word:  What do I really want?

Then dig deeper by asking again: What do I really, really, want?

While this may feel rudimentary, the simplicity of the inquiry helps uncover the values and passions that matter most, providing a foundation for intentional legacy planning.

For one client, this meant addressing deeply held fears. Although ultra-wealthy, he held a belief that he would die broke. His dad made and lost money several times, and he believed it was his fate. Once he recognized that belief, he had the freedom to make decisions. He stated that if he held a few million dollars in cash, he would be able to sleep at night, knowing he always had money.  We set aside a portion of his wealth in very conservative investments, which gave him peace of mind to pursue bigger legacy decisions.

Align Your Actions With Your Vision

Once you clarify your values and vision, you can align your actions to reflect those priorities. This means starting to use your resources. For many self-made successful entrepreneurs, it can be difficult to internalize getting into, especially when you’ve focused the majority of your effort on building a business and creating wealth for your family.

To help clients feel comfortable about using their resources now, we start by showing the client their net worth. Because we work with clients who have accumulated $20M-$100M or more in wealth, we may end up sharing, “If you live your best life and do everything you enjoy, you’ll spend 25% of this. When you die, there’s going to be a mountain leftover.’” For many clients, seeing this analysis is the first step toward understanding that they can use their wealth to make an impact now.

Investing in your family

One example of getting into action comes from a client of ours whose vision includes owning a vacation home to create generations of family memories. We helped them use a dynasty trust to purchase this special family retreat property. They bought a beautiful home on a golf course and it’s now like Camp David for their family. The adult children are the trustees of the trust, so they have to work together to manage the trust and keep the home in good shape. Our client can guide them and help while he and his wife are still alive, and the whole family can enjoy the property.

Philanthropic giving for the community

Helping clients with philanthropy has long been central to the MKD Wealth story. One longtime client couple made a transformative donation to a local university, establishing a new school and a building that now bears their names. By choosing to live their legacy, they were actively involved in shaping the school while they were young, engaged, and vibrant. Their estate plan ensures that, even after they pass, additional resources will continue to support the school, extending their legacy and impact on the community for generations to come.

Invest in Experiences, Not Just Assets

Have you ever had a vacation experience that was so bad that you can’t help but look back and laugh at it ten years later? These experiences, even the awful ones, provide the most joy and meaning in our lives. They also bring more happiness than the stuff we buy.

The value of experience, backed by research

Research by psychologist Dr. Thomas Gilovich at Cornell University shows that experiences, even negative ones, tend to be more valuable than material possessions, as they become a part of our identity and provide lingering memories that we can share.

Additional studies by Dr. Gilovich with Amit Kumar (from University of Texas at Austin) and Matthew A. Killingsworth (from the University of Pennsylvania) continue to reinforce that experiential investment promotes more happiness than spending on material goods.

Examples of creating meaningful memories

While you can help the next generation by sharing the assets that you’ve built up over your lifetime, you can also invest in experiences. When you do, you get to witness the impact on others and, depending on the investment, you get to share in the moments, too.

Reward responsible choices

One of our clients celebrated their daughter’s college  graduation with a special gift. She worked hard to plan a very budget-conscious trip with a friend. Proud of her ability to keep the trip within her means, the client refrained from funding the whole experience and taking away from her accomplishment. Rather, they decided to enhance her experience by saying, ‘We want you to have an experience on this trip that is beyond your budget—something really cool.’ Whether she chose to take an extravagant day tour or stay at an elite property did not matter; they paid for an upgraded experience for her to share a special moment.

Remove barriers

Another client couple organized a two-week trip through Italy with their daughters and their families. They spent two weeks traveling and paid for everything to remove any barrier of having their children join the trip.  Together, they made incredible memories. The wealth enabled the experience, but the fun they had together was what made it special.

Teach Valuable Skills and Lessons

Building a legacy isn’t just about passing down assets or values; it’s about equipping the next generation with the know-how to succeed.

Shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations

The reality is that without the skills and understanding of how to steward wealth, we believe the odds of wealth lasting through the third generation of a family are bleak. This often-referenced “third generation curse” comes from a 20-year research study conducted by The Williams Group, This study showed that 70 percent of wealthy families lose their wealth by the second generation, and 90 percent lose their wealth by the third.  You can, however, help your wealth continue well past your grandchildren by teaching valuable lessons and skills.

Entrepreneurship and investing skills

Tom Deans, who wrote Every Family’s Business, says not to give your children the gift of your business but the gift of entrepreneurism. He advises that you use your business as a vehicle to help them learn how to be entrepreneurs, and then also use your resources to help them discover what they actually enjoy.

One client couple we’ve worked with closely, created a unique way to engage their children in learning how to invest.  They set up investment accounts for their children with modest balances so they could learn to invest. Each child could select what to invest in and when to buy and sell. Throughout the year, this fun and educational experience not only created memories as they compared wins and losses but also taught their children valuable lessons about managing wealth.

Strategies to Safeguard and Grow Your Legacy

MKD Wealth employs a variety of strategies to help clients not only live their legacy but also protect and grow it for future generations. Many clients are surprised to learn about simple yet powerful approaches that can make a huge impact:

Donating Appreciated Stock

Rather than writing a $100,000 check to your favorite charity, you can take the stock that has the biggest gain in your portfolio and donate this appreciated stock. You do not have to pay tax on the gain; plus, you get the deduction for the full value if you’ve held the stock for more than a year. For gains on stocks held less than a year, you are limited to the cost basis as your deduction value.

If you want to, you can repurchase that same stock, and now you own it at the same price, but you have reset your cost basis. In our opinion, this double tax benefit can be a game-changer for philanthropically inclined clients.

Donor-Advised Funds

If you are charitably inclined and having a high-income year, you may consider making a large contribution to a donor-advised fund. You’ll get the tax deduction now and can spread out your donations to nonprofits over multiple years.  This strategy provides immediate tax benefits while allowing clients to thoughtfully manage their philanthropic impact.

Annual Gifting

You can use the annual gift exclusion to give resources to your children and teach them about investing and wealth management This means a person can give up to the gift exclusion amount ($19,000 for 2025) to as many people as he or she wants without having to pay any taxes on the gifts or reduce their lifetime exemption.

Dynasty Trusts

For larger legacies, a dynasty trust is a powerful tool designed to pass wealth down through multiple generations while avoiding estate taxes and protecting assets from creditors or lawsuits. We believe by placing assets in a dynasty trust, you can maintain  your wealth, allow it to grow over time, and support your family’s goals and values well into the future. It’s a way to make your financial legacy endure beyond just your children, benefiting grandchildren and beyond.

Start Living Your Legacy Today

You don’t have to wait to create a legacy worth leaving. The decisions you make and the actions you take today can shape a future filled with purpose, connection, and fulfillment. While it is a terrible master, your wealth is a wonderful servant to help communicate your values to the world around you.

Living your legacy now requires intention, education, and guidance. At MKD Wealth, we are passionate about helping families sustain their wealth over multiple generations, breaking the wealth loss cycle.

If you’re ready to align your wealth with your values and start living your legacy, let’s talk. Reach out to MKD Wealth to begin the journey. Together, we’ll craft a legacy plan that empowers you to lead with clarity and confidence while creating the freedom to enjoy the life you’ve built while safeguarding your wealth for generations to come.

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This material is for educational purposes only and is not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual and does not take into consideration your specific situation. There is no assurance that the views or strategies discussed are suitable for all investors or will yield positive outcomes. Investing involves risks including possible loss of principal. Be sure to consult with a qualified financial advisor, legal, and/or tax professional before implementing any strategy discussed here.