By Chuck Collins

(excerpts from the original article. Read the full article here.

Over the next 20 years, a minimum of $35 trillion, and up to $70 trillion, in wealth will transfer from the post-World War II generation to the next younger generation. Most of that wealth will flow in the upper canopy of the wealth forest, between family members in the world’s wealthiest 0.1%.

This intergenerational transfer will only further entrench racial and economic inequalities, aided by a veritable army of financial professionals devoted to minimizing taxes and maximizing family inheritances within narrow bloodlines.

But some beneficiaries of this system are working to disrupt it, with the help of financial advisers who have a very different outlook from the rest of their profession. They are redirecting this wealth to solve big problems, like climate disruption and racial inequity. And this has created a new ethos among some of the elite and their financial advisers: “wealth minimization.”

… “Some people inherit a ‘trusted family wealth adviser’ along with money,” says Nora Leccese, the high-net-wealth and family philanthropy coordinator at Resource Generation, a multiracial community of young people with wealth committed to the equitable distribution of wealth, land, and power. “These advisers show up with a bias for accumulation and against redistribution.”

… Stephanie Brobbey, the founder of Good Ancestor Movement Ltd., a new U.K.-based wealth advisory firm devoted to wealth minimization: “We are pioneering a radically different path for wealth stewardship—to move from a system of wealth extraction to a regenerative economy where wealth is more fairly distributed.”

Good Ancestor has developed a program where clients move through three stages as they create an alternative wealth minimization plan. The first stage is to work with clients to understand their wealth story and “reimagine wealth.” This includes exploring their upbringing, the sources of wealth, and the values communicated along with the money. “There are many forms of resistance to be navigated that are rooted in our socialization and how an individual’s wealth history has been shaped,” Brobbey says. ….

The second stage is removing barriers to change, which may include technical financial planning along with coaching or cognitive support. “We have to build new neural pathways to rethink wealth and how much is too much,” Brobbey says.

The third stage is identifying how to redistribute excess wealth so it is both reparative and regenerative. Brobbey says, “We ask our clients, ‘What harm may have been caused in the process of the extraction or ongoing accumulation of this wealth? Were there groups of people [who] were harmed? Was there ecological

… Redistribution outside philanthropy can take the form of paying taxes—at the local, state and federal level. It can mean transferring assets into community-controlled ventures, forming partnerships with social movements and communities that have been excluded from wealth for generations. There are examples of wealthy families redirecting their wealth to heal the harms created by the initial extraction of that wealth.

“Believe it or not, there is a growing market for anti-capitalist wealth advisers,” says Leccese of Resource Generation.

… “Our clients will be partners in pursuing a radically different vision of the world,” says Brobbey. “This is a lifelong journey of healing for all of us as we try to recover a lost story—or write a new economic story of justice and collective liberation.”

Source: https://www.yesmagazine.org/issue/how-much-is-enough/2021/08/10/rich-redistribute-money

CHUCK COLLINS is the director of the program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies where he co-edits Inequality.org. His new book is, The Wealth Hoarders: How Billionaires Pay Millions to Hide Trillions, is about the wealth hiding industry (Polity). Here’s the link to his book: https://politybooks.com/bookdetail/?isbn=9781509543489