How Financial Fluency Protects Your Business and Family Legacy

As we approach the end of the year, it’s natural to reflect on the business you’ve built, the family you’re protecting, and the legacy you’re creating. Wealth is built through effort, but it is preserved through understanding. For entrepreneurs and family business owners, financial fluency is key…not only to grow your business but to protect your family and ensure your legacy endures.

Why Financial Fluency Matters for Business Owners
Many entrepreneurs delay reviewing their estate plans, shareholder agreements, or tax strategies because planning feels complex or there isn’t enough time. Yet clarity in your finances can prevent misunderstandings, conflict, and costly mistakes, keeping your family and business aligned as you move into 2026. It also prevents generational conflicts as it relates to business finances.

Steps to Improve Financial Fluency

1. Review Your Estate Plan Regularly
   Goals, family dynamics, and business structures evolve over time. Annual reviews ensure your plan reflects your current reality.

2. Understand Your Shareholder Agreements
   Clear communication among co-owners prevents disputes and ensures smooth business succession.

3. Ask the Right Questions
   Focus not only on “what” needs to be done but on “why.” Understanding your values, goals, and priorities ensures planning decisions align with your vision. Ensure everyone involved is on the same page.

4. Collaborate With Advisors
   Integrating your accountant, lawyer, and financial planner ensures a collaborative approach, reduces oversights, and strengthens results.
   

The Long-Term Benefits
Prioritizing financial fluency allows you to:

• Protect your wealth and family legacy

• Gain confidence in business succession and estate planning

• Strengthen relationships and alignment across family and business

As we head into 2026, it’s a good time to think about the conversations you’ve had and the ones you’ve been putting off. Checking in on your plans and talking things through with your family can help everyone stay on the same page and feel confident about the future. Being financially fluent isn’t just about the numbers; it’s about feeling prepared, staying connected, and making sure the work you’ve done has the impact you want it to.

We’re always here to support you. Whether it’s answering questions, providing guidance, or helping you navigate complex family and business decisions, our team is ready to help you protect your business, your family, and your legacy.

Taking the Foot off the Brakes (4 Steps to Re-engage Your Client to Plan Effectively with Clarity and Confidence )

During a recent meeting with a business owner client who was referred to me, I began the meeting by asking him a simple question, “If you did not make it home from my office today, will the current planning that you have done to date ensure that your business, your employees, and most importantly your family will be well taken care of?” As expected, I was greeted by a minute of silence; accompanied with a little squirming in his chair…until finally an answer was uttered…”I am not sure….”

I have spent more than 25 years working with business owners and it still astounds me to learn during an initial discovery meeting, the number of entrepreneurs who do not have a will(s), shareholder agreement; appropriate life insurance or a well thought out estate and/or family business succession plan. I vividly recall another situation where a tax lawyer presented an effective planning strategy to defer a significant capital gains tax liability upon death through the utilization of a Spousal Testamentary Trust. The only issue was that the client’s planning goals were not solely tax driven. This was a second marriage and the client had strong feelings about how he wished his estate to be distributed, without sole regard for tax minimization. The structure that was initially presented was promptly discarded with a mandate to go back to the drawing board. Valuable time was wasted and frustration was created due to the fact that the advisor did not take the time to ask questions regarding the family dynamics and the client’s financial independence and family legacy goals.

If one dared to “google” estate planning one would find countless estate planning checklists, organizers, forms, worksheets, software programmes, questionnaires and kits that boggle the mind. So why is it that with all this information available and assuming the business owner has competent advisors; that he still postpones putting his planning into action? Planning that may in all likelihood result in significant tax savings, family harmony, financial peace of mind and potentially prevent costly litigation.

The reasons surrounding this lack of action are many; no time, cost, perceived complexity, challenging family dynamics, personal issues, to name just a few.

So, how can professionals’ motivate clients to actively engage in the planning process in order to help them make wise choices to protect and control what they have worked so hard to build? I would like to share with you a 4 step process that will enable you to motivate your clients to take the proper steps to begin and complete their planning in order to prevent them from leaving a “mess behind” due to procrastination, confusion and perceived complexity.

1. IDENTIFY AND UNDERSTAND A CLIENT’S VALUES SURROUNDING THEIR WEALTH

Building Wealth and Managing Wealth is not the same thing. Take the time to understand your client’s mindset surrounding their wealth, business and family dynamics. Help them identify their vision and goals as it pertains to financial security, independence and family legacy. Only through deep discovery can one truly gain clarity as to the issues and people that surround the wealth holder before offering effective planning advice. Consider asking thought provoking questions as it relates to what is important to them about money? What are the things that are keeping them awake at night?

2. ENGAGING ALL THE PROFESSIONAL ADVISORS COLLABORATIVELY

Clear identification of the planning team members and the role that they play in your client’s world will ensure integration of disciplines, minimize potential planning biases and provide an opportunity to share ideas among various professionals to ensure the best possible solutions. Once it is clearly established as to what the business owner wants to achieve and why they want to achieve their planning goals, only then can different solutions be considered. This should be communicated among all disciplines in order to arrive at the best possible solution(s).

3. DECIDE WHO WILL BE APPOINTED TO CO-ORDINATE THE PLANNING TO ENSURE PROGRESS, INTEGRATION AND COMPLETION IN A TIMELY FASHION

Many well intentioned plans have been placed on the back burner due to the fact that no one has been designated to act as a quarterback. This oftentimes results in effective planning going off the rails, loss of momentum and progress, with everyone getting busy in their own professional worlds waiting for the client to re-initiate the process.

4. ENSURE CONTINUING RESULTS MANAGEMENT

Events, circumstances and people change during the course of time. Scheduling annual reviews to ensure planning decisions that were implemented in the past are still relevant to changing circumstances and evolving goals may require revisions to Wills, legal agreements, tax structures and insurance. Planning strategies implemented in the past may also become irrelevant due to changes in legislation, personal and business circumstances. The client (in particular business owners and self-employed professionals) needs to be made aware of the importance of monitoring and reviewing their estate plan in order to ensure that previous planning decisions are still relevant and sustainable.

By taking the time to truly understand your client’s mission, vision, values and goals, and working with other professional advisors in a collaborative approach will more often result in an implemented plan that ensures peace of mind, family legacy, and financial security while strengthening your role as his trusted advisor. So perhaps the next time a client presents approaches you, the advisor with the sole objective of preparing a will, or developing an estate plan, take the time to dig a little deeper and understand the “why” before advising them as to “what” they need. You may find yourself with a more engaged and motivated person ready to step on the gas because he sees the “bigger picture” of his wealth more clearly and will be confident to complete his overall planning in a clearer, effective and timely fashion.