Home Truths

FINANCIAL PLANNERS – How often have you heard your clients tell you that they, ‘Want the house to go to the kids’? 

And how often have you dutifully written that in your fact-find and moved on? 

But STOP!  

‘Leave the house to the kids’ makes no logical sense at all. 

How exactly is it going to work? 

Let’s say your clients are in their 60s and they’ve got 2 kids both in their late 30s, with families of their own. Maybe one has moved away and built a life elsewhere. 

Are we suggesting that upon their parents’ deaths and finding out that they’ve been ‘left the house’, they’re both going to move back into the family home? Will their families be crammed into their teenage bedrooms with posters of Kylie Minogue and Luke Skywalker on the wall? 

Sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? 

Of course they’re not going to do that! 

No. They’re going to sell the house and split the money. 

So your clients, who are all misty-eyed about the home that they raised their family in, aren’t really leaving it to the kids at all. 

They’re leaving the equity to the kids. 

And the distinction is very important because ‘leaving the house to the kids’ is an emotional decision and ‘leaving the equity to the kids’ is a financial decision. 

‘Leaving the house to the kids’ is an emotive bequeathment from people whose own parents and grandparents probably only ever dreamt of owning a house, and instead anxiously awaited the weekly visit from the rent man. 

They’re not leaving them the house. 

They’re leaving them security. 

‘Leaving the equity to the kids’ acknowledges that the house is going to be sold and the money is going to be spent. Which makes it a financial decision. 

And if you can help them see this, you can often get them to talk about what they hope their children spend the money on. 

And if you can do that, they can start to visualise the benefits it will bring to their families when they’re gone. 

And if you can do that, then you’re only a short hop and a skip away from the idea of doing it while they’re alive and enjoying it in their lifetime—with their own eyes!  

And now your clients are saying, ‘We want to enjoy gifting money to our children and seeing them benefit.’  

Which, ironically, is an emotional decision. 

But one that makes sense, and as a financial planner, you have a range of financial tools available to potentially help them do so. 

In just a few minutes of great coaching work, you’ve changed their lives.  

And their children’s…

And their grandchildren’s…

Unless, of course, you just wrote ‘Wants to leave the house to the kids’ in your fact-find and moved on.

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