Six Steps to Preparing Heirs like Flying a Plane

Imagine giving your five-year-old granddaughter a lit match near an open tank of gasoline. Nervous? 

You wouldn’t give gas and a lighter to a young child without training on fire. Likewise, you wouldn’t give keys to your private jet and fuel without months of lessons and most likely a license. Then why do we give cash without any word from you on how to use it. 

Uninhibited access to excess cash often leads to dramatic falls and crashes. Heirs need preparation. The process of preparing heirs is not dissimilar to flying.

I Googled this becoming a pilot, so, obviously I’m an expert. Here are six steps to be a pilot (Todd’s ever so official steps I just made up right now). 

1)    Classroom/book study. 20+ hours for a basic license. 

2)    Field experience. 5-10 hours with another pilot before your first solo flight. 

3)    Conversations with other pilots. Multiple teachers help broaden the knowledge base. Think elementary had one teacher.  Middle school a few. High school had a different teacher for every class.

4)    Guidance on Instrument use. You need to learn technical things. But only after you have a basic understanding of the classroom material. 

5)    Night flying. Night flying is radically different in how you see, feel and process the data. 

6)    Weather impacts. You need to learn how rain, snow, and wind play into the process. Note, they happen unexpectedly. 

I’m sure there are more steps to flying but these parallel the inheritance process. So now six steps to guide you on preparing your heirs.  

1)    Classroom/book study here. Give them books and articles, or go to a conference with them. Go to lunch and discuss the material afterwards. What basics do you need them to learn? How should you best teach them? You can teach in a group but dialogue individually. Take your time. Let them learn at their pace. Think basics. 

Vince Lombardi is famous for starting each season with a “This is a football” lecture. Teach them “a football moves like this” basics of your work, operating company, or estate plan specifics. 

2)    Field experience. You watch before you fly alone. Don’t throw them out of the nest without them ever observing. Do a project with them. If you a private equity person, do the entire deal with your kids. Let them see the full thing start to finish. Awkward conversations, number crunching, dirt kicking trips,  lunch deals—the whole thing. 

Then walk them through how this one has been different than others. Think apprenticing them into your process, values, and ways. This isn’t just a one-time lunch where you dump all your wisdom. It’s a series of dialoguing conversations, not a monologue. 

3)    Conversations with other pilots. I’m mean you are good and all, but others can and should help out. Do you have some good friends you can connect them with to talk through another perspective? 

Tee them up with good questions, or a story to prime the pump and let them go. I would suggest you make them take notes. You remember more when you write it down. Also, they can go back over their notes to increase learning, and then you can unpack with them basis on what was said. Also, your friend can give you feedback and where they are through this process as well. 

4)    Guidance on instrument use. Teach them the technical pieces of your plan. Let them connect with your team. The questions they’ll get answered there are different than your focus. Also, this is best done as a second (or fourth) step not the starting point.

5)    Night flying. If I were to guess there are unique pieces of your plans that need more guidance. Like night flying, things change with that element of your plan. But cover this piece after they’ve gotten the basics of your values, work ethic, etc. 

6)    Weather impacts. Plan on something coming up you didn’t see. Weather changes. Life changes. Let your plan to train them be dynamic.  

Bottom line, preparing your heirs needs intentional work. Spend more time on this than you did writing and signing the documents.