Why Leave a Legacy?

“What we do for ourselves is gone when we’re gone, what we do for others, that’s our legacy.”

You’ve worked hard all your life and you’ve done your best to raise healthy, happy, well adjusted, productive children.  Over the years you have probably volunteered with some organization or another and donated monies to various causes from school fundraisers to international help organizations.

Now you’re at a point in life where your family is grown and starting lives of their own, work is slowing down or you are retired with plenty of time on your hands.

Although you are starting to slow down, you still have plenty to give and you want to help.  Some people volunteer and give back to their community through groups and organizations that survive on free labor.  Other people have no time to give but they do have money and they donate as a way of contributing to their causes.

Every year, more and more groups are looking for financial help and it’s hard to choose who would best benefit from your assistance.  How much of your money is actually going to the cause you are supporting and how much is going to ‘administration fee’s’?  Do you want your money to remain local? What do you want to see your money do?  Do you want to build something that will last forever or do you want to help an immediate need?  How passionate are you about your cause and are you willing to put your name on it to support it?

How does a person make decisions with all these choices? The key is to decide if you want to make a difference by creating a legacy for your cause or if you want to contribute to an existing cause.  After that, you just need the help of your financial planner and a community group or foundation to help you make a difference to those in need.

Locally, we’ve been ‘helping you help others’ since 1987.  Prudent investments have enabled us to give approximately $1.7 million in scholarships, bursaries and grants over the last 29 years.  Because of this the benefactors who support the Foundation are confident that the Board will continue to grow their funds and ensure their legacies remain viable for years to come.

So if you’re able and serious about making a difference, get out there and start your legacy; there’s no better time than now.