STEP III: VISION STATEMENT & FAMILY GOVERNANCE
The Vision Statement is a meaningful and compelling statement of your story and values coupled with your vision for sharing those values with future generations. The vision statement is a written distillation of what was discovered in oral Guided Discovery. Consequently, your stories, traditions, values, and visions develop permanency. So, they will not be lost and forgotten after your life. Permanency digs a deep foundation under your significance so the people and organizations you care most about will be, not only remembered, but known for the ages. The Vision Statement holds the essences of where and with whom you began your life, of how you grew and developed to where you are now, and of the future you want to see for those you love and yourself. Your significance is permanent.

To disseminate your Vision Statement, we create your Family Charter and Family By-Laws. The Family Charter is an instrument emanating from the parents in the nature of a grant from a sovereign, which is created for future generations. As the first generation, you are your family’s permanent founders. Therefore, it makes sense to formally establish your family’s permanence through a charter, which is signed by all your Family Council members at the time of inception. Think of it!

The Family By-Laws are the formal set of rules and regulations adopted by the members of the chartered organization. Your by-laws establish your Family Council, the governing structure for teaching and training your succeeding generations. Each family that goes through Family Legacy Planning Specialists’ six-step experience will know the uniqueness of their family’s governance structure. No set of family by-laws is the same. Each family member eligible for its Family Council will be carefully assessed for his or her strengths to determine how that member can be the best possible contributor. Once family members have their places in their Family Council, their purpose becomes their training and preparation to work with, contribute to, and to give of themselves for the advancement of the family’s significance. Each member should learn that their family’s agenda supersedes their own individual agenda. Because the Family Council experience will continue for the rest of each member’s life, each should be prepared to receive, not only your financial wealth after your life, but, most importantly, each should be prepared to receive and sustain your emotional wealth. Who you are is really more important than what you have. Such pre-inheritance training will genuinely prepare all family members in ways conventional planning never dreamed of.

› Step Four