The Fool Asks the King....

Leap: What Will You Do With the Rest of Your Life? By Sara Davidson. Seems that this is a great question to ask of successful people, or those successful in worldy terms, who might have had an event, whether a liquidity event in selling their business, a first heart attack, getting forced out at the top from a firm, a divorce, a child who dies, or whatever it might be that forces the person to ask, "Who am I? Where am I going? What can I do with the resources remaining, my days included?" Volunteering, giving, activism, organizing, running for office, writing a book, mentoring kids, are all good answers. Boomer age people find mortality a strange concept. It gives us immortality yearnings, or yearnings to yet do more. Philanthropy should be a key beneficiary, but the initial topic, the key topic, with the client is not philanthropy; it is self, family, and society. The topic is the client's own hero story, the client's sense of an ending, to use a phrase from the literary critic Frank Kermode. Paul Schervish would know what I mean. People want to be able to tell an archetypal story that more or less fits the facts of what they did, failed to do, did wrong, learned, overcame, accomplished and now can teach. They start out in our culture thinking that it must be Horatio Alger - rags to riches. They get to be a Presidential aid, spend time in the slammer for dirty tricks,  and the story changes - "I once was lost and now am found." (C.f. Chuck Colson.)  With your clients, what is the story? I am afraid most advisors don't ask, and don't listen for themes. As a result they fail to help the client write the last act, last scene with anything much in mind but taxes. "Here lies Jenny Jones, she died estate tax free." You'd think that was the meaning of life. Might be yours, not mine. And most clients can do better. But, again, the topic is no more philanthropy than it is tax savings. The topic is "Who are you?" And the outcome is a hero story whose next chapter must be written well in order to recuperate the sorry mess that rich and powerful people make in their own lives and those around them. Hunh? Yup. Think of King Lear as the story of a botched estate plan. The best counselor that king had was a Fool. Draw your own moral, ye courtiers who aspire to be Chancellor of the Exchequer, Minister of Public Relations, or Homme D'Affaires.  Our modern day kings and queens are ill-served by such providers of services - loyal lackeys all. On the other hand, the Fool sleeps in the stables.