Flo Minton, CSA
Certified Senior Advisor
(602) 295-1966
®
Ethical Wills, Legacy Letters & Legacy Conversations
Your Story Is Part of Your Legacy
Someday, the people you love may wish they could ask you one more question.
"What was your childhood really like?"
"How did you meet the love of your life?"
"What were you most proud of?"
"What did life teach you?"
"What do you hope your grandchildren will always remember?"
An Ethical Will, Legacy Letters, and Legacy Conversations will help you capture the memories, experiences, wisdom and messages that make your life uniquely yours and preserve them for the people you love - in your words and in your own voice.
Through comfortable, guided conversations, we can preserve the stories that might otherwise disappear with time.
Your Stories. Your Voice. Your Choice.
There is no single way to preserve a legacy. Perhaps you want to record a few treasured written stories for your grandchildren. Maybe you want to create an Ethical Will or Legacy Letters for your children. Or perhaps you'd like to document your life more fully through a video or audio recording.
Your legacy project can be as simple or as comprehensive as you want it to be and you can choose a format that feels comfortable and authentic to you, including one of our three options:
Ethical Wills
"What did my life teach me, and what do I want my family to know?"
A traditional will tells your heirs what you want them to have. Your Ethical Will tells them what you want them to know. An Ethical Will passes along your values, beliefs, life lessons, hopes, gratitude, advice and personal messages for the people you love.
FORMAT: Written only
What Is an Ethical Will?
An Ethical Will is not a legal document and it does not replace your traditional estate planning.
Instead of answering the question "What do I want my loved ones to have?", an Ethical Will answers a much more personal question: "What do I want my loved ones to know?"
The tradition is centuries old. Long before modern legal wills existed, people passed along words of wisdom, beliefs, blessings and guidance to the generations that followed them. Today, an Ethical Will can preserve the things that may matter most to your family someday:
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The values that guided your life
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Lessons you learned along the way
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Stories that shaped the person you became
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Beliefs and traditions you hope will continue
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Advice you want to pass along
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Gratitude you want to express
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Hopes for your children, grandchildren and future generations
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The things you want your family to understand about you
There is no required format and no "right" way to create one.
What matters is that it sounds like you.
The Missing Piece of Estate Planning
Imagine carefully planning everything you have accumulated during your lifetime — while leaving the most personal part of your legacy to chance.
Your family may someday know who received the house, the jewelry, the photographs or the savings.
But will they know why you made the choices you made?
Will your grandchildren know what you learned from your greatest challenges?
Will your children know what made you proud of them?
Will future generations understand the values you hoped your family would carry forward?
A legal will can preserve and distribute your assets.
An Ethical Will preserves something that only you can give your loved ones: yourself.
Legacy Letters
"What do I want you to know?"
Legacy Letters can express many of the same thoughts and sentiments as an Ethical Will, but in a more intimate and personal way as they are directed to a specific person, written or recorded for a particular child, grandchild, spouse, friend, or future generation.
FORMAT: Written, Audio, or Video
What Is a Legacy Letter?
While an Ethical Will often speaks to your family as a whole, a Legacy Letter is usually written for one particular person — at one particular moment.
It might be a letter to your spouse or partner.
A child or grandchild.
A sibling or lifelong friend.
Or someone who hasn't even been born yet.
A Legacy Letter gives you the opportunity to say the things that can be surprisingly difficult to put into words during everyday life:
"I love you."
"I'm proud of you."
"Here's what I remember about you."
"Here's what I hope for you."
"Here's something I learned that I want you to know."
"Here's what knowing you has meant to my life."
Some Legacy Letters are intended to be read immediately. Others can be preserved for meaningful moments in the future — a wedding, graduation, milestone birthday, the birth of a child or a time when your words might be especially meaningful or inspirational.
The purpose isn't to write something perfect. It's to leave something personal and meaningful.
Legacy Conversations
"What happened in my life?"
Tell the story of your life through childhood memories, family traditions, favorite recipes, important relationships, careers, adventures, challenges, accomplishments and the everyday moments that helped shape who you became.
FORMAT: Audio or Video
Legacy Conversations - Audio & Video Recordings
"Let me tell you in my own voice."
Creating professionally recorded and edited audio or video interviews will preserve not just words, wishes, and memories, but your voice, expressions, laughter, personality, and presence - a precious heirloom your family will treasure for years to come.
Sharing your life story, your memories and the life lessons you have learned can be deeply personal and very impactful for your family. My role isn't to decide which stories are important. It's to help you tell the stories that are important to you. Utilizing a set of carefully pre-selected questions, I will guide you to recall and record the myriad experiences and wisdom gathered over your lifetime.
Why Create Them Now?
It is easy to think, I'll do this someday.
But memories fade. Details disappear. Opportunities to ask questions can pass unexpectedly.
Creating an Ethical Will or Legacy Letter doesn't have to be something we do at the end of life.
It can be something we do because we have lived.
You don't need to have lived an extraordinary life to have something worth preserving. The ordinary moments, hard-earned lessons, family stories and quiet expressions of love are often the things future generations treasure most.
And there is another gift in creating them now:
The people you love don't necessarily have to wait to receive them.
Sometimes the most meaningful legacy is one we have the opportunity to share while we are still here.
Your Words. Your Voice. Your Legacy.
You don't have to know what to write or where to begin.
This isn't about filling in a template. It is about listening. Asking the right questions.
Helping you put into words the things you may have carried in your heart for years and want to pass on for your loved ones to remember you by.
Through a relaxed, guided conversation and a process of reflection, interviewing, and listening, I will help you uncover the stories, values, memories and messages you want to preserve, and shape them into a meaningful Ethical Will, Legacy Letters or Legacy Conversation that feels authentic to you.
A Conversation Built on Trust
As a Certified Senior Advisor®, I have completed specialized education focusing on the issues that affect older adults and their families. That education, combined with over 20 years of experience in multimedia production and graphic design, allows me to approach every legacy project with patience, professionalism, sensitivity and respect.
Let's Talk About Your Legacy
Not sure where to begin?
Schedule a free 15-minute introductory call and we can discuss what you'd like to preserve and explore which type of legacy project might be right for you and your family.