Prepare your beneficiaries to manage family properties

A lot of attention has been devoted to the written forms of estate planning; Wills, Trusts and Succession cases, among others. That is as it should be.

But increasingly, we have noted many cases where the succession processes take place successfully but there are still problems beyond the court. The problems arise when some beneficiaries misuse the property or waste it and unfortunately there is nothing the court can do about that.

You see, I am certain many of us work for many years in the hope we do not only take care of our children and ourselves, but also so that we can leave something to be inherited; we hope they will have a good start in life with what we have left for them.

You therefore find people being so careful with resources and properties even when their children are all educated; some will not even go for a holiday, buy a car or even a new item of clothing. Imagine the heart attacks they would suffer if from the other world they were able to see how quickly that which they left behind disappears into holidays, entertainment, new clothes etc.

Someone suggested, and I agree, therefore that beyond the Wills and Trusts, we need to provide capacity to manage property to our children. That capacity to manage is not taught in any school except the family home where we should teach our children the value of hard work, managing property and money and even how to grow it.

That is where we teach ownership over what we own so that they do not waste it when we are gone. Anyone who grows up being kept away from the parents’ property may never feel that he owns it, even at the death of the parents. We know what you do with anything that you have no connection to; you can sell it at an under value or even give it away.

It is in the family home that we correct the mistakes that the children make, before they make grave mistakes, when we are no longer there; limited exposure to property enables the beneficiary  start making decisions. Some decisions may be wrong, but he will learn from that.

The person also suggested that the answer may lie in bringing up generators instead of consumers. That if you have brought up consumers who do not link with the source of that which they consume and the sweat involved, then they will just be consumers after you are departed. And before you reach the pearly gates, there may not be much left.

It is also disheartening to note that many of our children do not come into our businesses after completing schools and colleges; they flock the job market with everyone else whereas the opportunity to join the family business should be available. In fact many may even look down at the parents’ business yet it provided the money to educate them. They may think that it does not look glamorous enough for them to get into; they may fail to realise that with their education and exposure the business could scale great heights. The reason they do not have that connection could simply be that at the formative age, the parents never socialised them into it.

As a result parents who head the business tire eventually and the business may either be closed down or sold off. In the meantime the young person hustles to grow other people’s business while his family business is wasting away.

As a client of European descent and who had been in Kenya for 20 years told me after he retired and returned to Europe, “you people are so lucky to have so many children yet you do not take care of them. Don’t you realise that your continent’s greatest potential is the youth, who if properly supported and directed could make Africa a super power in the future?”