Stop Letting the IRS Write Your Family Story

We talk about legacy like it is automatic.

Most of us assume that if we work hard, love our families, and build a few meaningful things, all of that will somehow flow down to our kids and grandkids. We picture our businesses, investments, and hard-won wisdom just naturally landing in the hands of the next generation.

But I am slowly realizing something that feels a little painful to admit.

Without wise legal and financial structure, a lot of what we build can just evaporate. Not because we did not care. Simply because we did not plan.

“I am learning this twenty years too late”

Over the last few years I have had a growing sense that I am late to the party on this stuff.

I keep bumping into areas where I wish someone had sat me down twenty years ago and said, “Hey, you do not need to become a tax attorney, but you cannot ignore this.”

Things like:

Basic tax strategy
How to actually structure a business
How trusts and wills work together
How to protect what you are building instead of handing huge chunks of it to the IRS or to chance

Maybe you feel that too. You look at the complexity of tax law or estate planning and think, “I should probably understand this better,” but life is busy, business is demanding, and it is easier to push it off for another day.

Then another year passes.

Nobody is coming to do this for us

Here is the sobering part: no one is going to show up at your door with a neat little binder and say, “Good news, we have done all your legacy planning for you.”

At some point, we have to decide that learning the basics is part of our responsibility as adults, parents, and business owners.

There are so many solid resources out there that can literally change a family tree:

Podcasts that translate legalese into plain English
Books that walk through estate planning with real examples
Guides that help you ask better questions of your CPA or attorney

But they only help the people who actually press play, turn the pages, and start asking those questions.

A simple turning point for me

One of the biggest turning points for me was discovering teachers who could explain complex topics in a way I could actually understand.

For me, the Main Street Business podcast became that “on ramp.” I could pop in my headphones while driving or going for a run and slowly chip away at my ignorance.

No three hour seminar. No giant textbook. Just one episode at a time, in plain language, with practical examples.

Over time, that kind of steady, bite-sized learning has done more for my understanding than years of vaguely “meaning to get around to it.”

Start with one solid podcast

I am not writing this as a lawyer, a tax pro, or an estate planner. I am writing this as a fellow traveler who wants to see what you are building actually reach your children and your children’s children.

So here is my simple invitation:

Pick one solid podcast that teaches this stuff and commit to it.

Not ten podcasts you half-listen to. One.

Subscribe to it
Put it on your calendar a couple of times a week
Listen on your commute or your daily walk
Take light notes on the big ideas and questions that come up

If you need a place to start, I recommend the Main Street Business podcast. They do a great job of explaining wills, trusts, tax strategy, and business structure in ways normal people can understand.

The time to protect your legacy is now

The time to protect your legacy is long before anybody actually needs it.

Once you are gone or unable to make decisions, your family is stuck with whatever planning - or lack of planning - you did. They will either be grateful for the thought and structure you put in, or they will be left scrambling to figure it out under pressure.

You do not have to fix everything this week. You do not have to become an expert. But you can take the next wise step.

So this week, set aside one focused hour. Go for a walk. Listen to the episode I recommended about wills and living trusts. Let it provoke your thinking. Then write down one or two concrete actions you need to take next.

Your future self will thank you. Your kids and grandkids might not know all the details, but they will feel the impact.

Do not let the IRS write your family story for you.

To thriving,

Zach