What could Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders possibly have to do with Estate Planning?
I think we can all agree that this is the craziest presidential election we have ever experienced or even heard about. The fact is that there actually have a been a few that revealed this one.
The 1964 Republican nomination process was almost a mirror image of what is happening today. Amazing. And here we are again, just a few generations later wondering what the heck is going on.
My son, who was able to vote for the 1st time in 2012, was excited and involved in that election. The other day he asked, “Dad, how can I know who to vote for? I can’t even figure out what is going on. It’s all so complicated.”. Not an easy question to answer.
Has everyone that supports Donald or Ted or Hillary or Bernie really thought about why they have done so? I think the experts might tell us that most people choose for reasons other than the logical, well thought out ones. Its anger or a single issue or you like their looks or you vote the party line. Why do we do that?
Did our Parents sit us down and explain the political process to us? Or better yet, did our Grandparents? Not in my case. And in my son’s case, I’m trying to get him to see things clearly, but he is of his own mind these days. I should have worked on this when he was younger.
The values, ethics and in this case, the standards and logic by which we live our lives need to passed along to the generations as they come along. If each family would gather their young ones together and explained what was going on today, and how that family was going to vote and why, then at least those kids would have some foundation for how they might act in future, and hopefully more civilized, elections.
Talk to your kids about this. Talk to your grandkids about this. Grandparents hold important wisdom. They have been through it before. They know.
And when you reach a certain age, or if you are at that certain age, remember when you are thinking about your legacy that the values, ethics and wisdom you have created during your life is the one thing that will serve your descendants throughout their lives… but only if you pass them along.