What does your “Legacy” mean to you? In our culture, the way we define this word tends to be pretty narrow. We think about someone’s Legacy as being, first and foremost, their material successes during life: their career achievements, the wealth they accumulated, the positive impacts they had on the world through their money and status. In our line of work, the term “Legacy planning” almost always just refers to an extension of financial planning or estate planning.
But let me ask you a different question—one that’s a bit more emotionally direct (sincerity warning!). Here it is: When you think about your loved ones who have passed away, what do you remember about them? What parts of them remain dearest to you now that they’re gone? Which memories make you feel closest to them now?
You probably already know the not-so-subtle point I’m trying to make. Yes, money is obviously important: in case you haven’t heard, we’re pretty big fans of planning for your financial future, and we’ll never stop talking about how every single adult should have a strong Aging & End of Life Plan in place. But at the end of the day, your material wealth is not what your loved ones will remember about you. They’re going to remember the time you spent together; the way you made them feel; the parts of you that are most unique and vital.
When we die, we don’t just leave behind a singular Legacy. We have multiple Legacies that we’re building up over the course of our lives, all of which will outlive us.
Here are 5 different kinds of Legacies that you can build for yourself—the kinds of things that your loved ones will really remember about you after you’re gone.
1. Your Financial Legacy
Let’s get this one out of the way first, seeing as it’s the kind of Legacy most people are already familiar with. No, money isn’t everything—but it is an important part of the Legacy puzzle.
Your Financial Legacy is about how you use your money to benefit your loved ones and the wider world, both during your life and after it. The most obvious vehicle for your Financial Legacy is your Last Will & Testament, which ensures that you get to decide how your Estate will be split up and utilized after your death. Leaving your loved ones money or cherished possessions via your Will means giving them a final gift to remember you by—and if you’ve worked with a good Legacy Coordinator, it also means sparing them the stress and heartache of navigating someone’s Estate when they die without a clear Plan in place.
This isn’t just about the people closest to you, though. Your Financial Legacy is also about using your money to make the world a better place after you’re gone. That includes Legacy Giving, or making charitable donations through your Will. Only 5% of Canadians leave charitable gifts through their Wills—but most people don’t realize that Legacy Giving is an easy and impactful way to make sure your money goes toward causes you care most about.
In short: if you want to build a strong Financial Legacy, start talking to a Legacy Coordinator or financial advisor about how you can get the most bang for your buck (literally).
2. Your Emotional Legacy
My maternal grandmother passed away when I was a kid—young enough that I have only hazy memories of the time I got to spend with her. But even now, I remember so clearly how she made me feel. I remember her warmth and her kindness, and how delighted she always was to spend time with her grandkids. I remember being in awe of how she could finish the whole crossword, which at the time seemed to me like some kind of esoteric ritual adjacent to wizardry. I remember feeling so peaceful when I was sitting in her lap.
Your Emotional Legacy is about how you make people feel. It’s kind of a cliché, but when all is said and done, people won’t remember you for your fancy job title or the long list of awards you racked up in life; they’ll remember you for how you treated them and the emotional connections you made with them. It’s easy to forget that when we’re running around trying to deal with the chaos of everyday life. But your Emotional Legacy is probably one of the things you’ll be thinking about most at the end of your life. That means you should be intentional about building one.
How exactly do you do that? Carve out quality time to spend with your loved ones. Make an effort to show up for people when they need you. Go out of your way to show kindness to people. Embody the person you want people to remember you as. It’s never too late to start.
3. Your Creative Legacy
Art—whether that means drawing, painting, writing, music, dance, or something else entirely—is one of the most powerful things that connects us across time and generations. Our creative output is one of the most raw, direct expressions of who we are as unique individuals. And with a little bit of planning, it’s also pretty easy to ensure that our art outlives us, so that we can leave behind a record of our creativity during life.
The first part of building a Creative Legacy is nourishing your creativity in life. Make time for artistic pursuits. Learn a new craft or creative medium. Find ways to express yourself through art. Share your art with others.
But it’s also important to make plans for preserving your creative accomplishments. For this, building your Creative Legacy into your Aging & End of Life Plan is key. If you have physical works, like paintings, drawings, or photographs, make sure your loved ones know where to find them and who gets to keep what.
You could also consider using creative formats to document somebody’s life. That could mean recording videos of them, writing down their biography, self-publishing a book of their own creative works—the possibilities are endless.
4. Your Cultural Legacy
“Culture” can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. It can be everything from your religious affiliation, to your family traditions, to the kinds of food you cook and eat in your community, and more. Your Cultural Legacy is about how you nourished and engaged with your culture throughout your life, and how you helped to share it with other people. That can be something as simple as teaching your kids how to cook their grandparents’ old recipes, or volunteering your time at your local place of worship.
Building a Cultural Legacy is largely about how you engage with your culture during life. But the way you plan for the end of your life is also important. It goes without saying that different cultures and religions all have their own approaches to saying goodbye. Through the magic of Aging & End of Life Planning, you can make sure your loved ones know exactly how you want to be laid to rest, and often, you can make advanced arrangements to ensure you are given the celebration of life you want, from a cultural and religious perspective. You may also want to consider using your Last Will & Testament as a tool to support cultural or religious institutions that are important to you.
5. Your Ethical Legacy
With the holiday season coming up fast, I can’t help but think of Ebeneezer Scrooge being visited by the Ghosts of Christmases Past, Present, and Yet to Come. When you really get down to it, that last one—the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come—is really all about Ethical Legacy. Scrooge is forced to confront how his greed and selfishness during life are leading him towards a lonely, miserable death, and he wakes up from this vision with a new conviction to do good.
Your Ethical Legacy is about what you do to stand by your values and beliefs, and your determination to do the right thing. Having a strong moral compass—and sticking with it, even when doing so is hard—is the kind of thing that not only gives you a strong sense of purpose and direction, but also cements you in the memories of other people. Upholding your own ethics, treating other people well, and sticking your neck out for others are all ways to build your Ethical Legacy.
“Yes, And” not “Either/Or”
You’re not one-dimensional, and your Legacy shouldn’t be either. We all have many different sides to ourselves, and they all deserve to be remembered. Legacy Planning lets us be a bit more intentional not only about how we memorialize our lives, but also how we live them day to day—so that we can embody the kind of Legacies (plural) we hope to leave behind.
