TY - JOUR T1 - Freedom from Wealth JF - The Journal of Wealth Management SP - 17 LP - 23 DO - 10.3905/jwm.2008.701847 VL - 10 IS - 4 AU - Charles A. Lowenhaupt Y1 - 2008/01/31 UR - https://pm-research.com/content/10/4/17.abstract N2 - Recognizing that there is more to wealth than money is the main theme of the article. An entire industry has been designed and dedicated to the proposition that inherited wealth must be preserved, and that preserving it requires a substantial commitment and effort on the part of the inheritor. Little is said about using wealth to create freedom and functionality—the very qualities that created it in the first place. Personal growth is subjugated to the good of the family. Individuality gets lost, and this leads to dissatisfaction, a lack of functionality, and unhappiness. Our focus on stewardship has made wealth management much more complicated and burdensome than it needs to be. The real hard work is not managing the money. It is figuring out what the money is for. The first choice is to control the wealth for many generations to come, while the second choice is to allow freedom and functionality in future generations. In fact, either choice, if considered carefully, must have as its ultimate purpose to allow independence. Perhaps the greatest challenge in achieving freedom from wealth is actually learning to live with wealth as part of a productive life. Philanthropy is one of the best tools for liberating wealth holders from the burden of wealth and build functionality into the family. It is time for the industry of wealth counselors to consider how the wealth advisory world is shaping the character of its clients and to ask how we give individuals freedom with wealth. There are risks to our economics in encouraging freedom in thinking and actions, but there is also satisfaction in helping people achieve their potential.TOPICS: Wealth management, in wealth management ER -