Why I like Bill Gates

Add comment July 14th, 2008

  Jody J. Jungerberg, MBA, CFS, ChFC, CFP® 

No, it’s not why you might think.  He may be the world’s richest man, but I respect him most for the role of philanthropist that he plays in our world.  He gives back. And even more worthy of respect is what he chose to name his foundation:  The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.  Not the Gates Foundation, not the William Gates Foundation but Bill and Melinda.   

He recognizes that the time for women to play a key role in philanthropic planning is now.   

We leave our mark on the world in many ways: through our children, by passing on family values, by volunteering for organizations that mean something to us. But we have the ability to go beyond this.  It is not only the family patriarch that makes legacy decisions anymore.  Women are playing key roles in choosing the family legacy in our generation.  We are at a unique time in history. During the next 30 years, our world will experience the largest intergenerational transfer of wealth that has ever occurred.   

I really enjoy the visioning exercises we do with our clients.  Visioning goes beyond determining, “Do I have enough to accomplish my goals”?  Visioning reaches deep inside a client to help them do what is called: “Inspired Legacy Planning”.  Once we have figured out that they have enough to retire, they have more than enough to leave to their children, we come to the question:  Is it your intent to die rich?  More than not, the answer is no.  But if we ask, “Would you like to leave the world a better place than when you left it because of something you’ve done or given?” The answer, most often, is yes.

Helping cliens create their own ispired legacy plan is fulfilling beyond mesaure. One does not need the financial wealth of Bill and Melinda Gates (okay, it helps). Truly, everyone has the capacity to do something.