When families can’t talk about money, it hurts everyone….
You’ve built your business, dedicated vast amounts of time and money to it, and now you’re ready to consider your legacy. What are you passing on, and how does it reflect your values? Is your family prepared for the legacy they will receive, or are you leaving them a mess?
In Don’t Leave a Mess!, estate planner and family business advisor Sandy Pollack unpacks what it means to make wise choices for your business that not only protect what you have worked so hard to build but reflect your why. With more than twenty years in the industry, Sandy helps family business owners unravel the complexities that running a successful business and building significant wealth can create.
Join Sandy in a thoughtful exploration of your own history and values so you can set the right priorities, choose the right team of professional advisors, simplify your legacy, and communicate with your family so that no mess is left behind.
What Others are Saying about “Don’t Leave a Mess”
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“Most family business owners, particularly founders (Gen 1), avoid putting plans in place to deal with transition and succession. For various reasons, they struggle with knowing where to start and how to engage and communicate with their family to make rational decisions that will protect their legacy and wealth. The unfortunate outcome is a real mess for their family to clean up after they are gone. In this book, Don’t Leave a Mess!, Sandy draws on her tremendous experience advising families to provide real-life strategies and guidance on how to successfully navigate planning your legacy. Her compelling stories and direct, no-nonsense approach will help family business owners overcome their procrastination and inertia to develop a true legacy-thinking mindset.”
—BILL BRUSHETT, President and CEO of Family Enterprise Canada
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“This book is a wonderful resource for entrepreneurs and family business leaders. Sandy shares real-life stories which illustrate how easily things can go wrong, and then she follows up with clear, actionable advice to help us avoid disaster. Sandy also invites us to be courageous and to have regular, open conversations with our families so that we can ‘Leave a Legacy’ instead of ‘Leaving a Mess!’”
—DAVID C. BENTALL, President of Nextstep Advisors and FFI (Family Firm Institute) fellow
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“‘Silence is easy; opening up is hard. NOW GET MOVING!’ Written with a disarming combination of empathy and tough-mindedness, this book is a soup-to-nuts guidebook for the business-owning family. Need some ideas on how to start talking about money in your family? On picking the right advisors and getting rid of the wrong ones? On managing your own emotions while you do these tasks? The author provides grounded, practical strategies on everything it takes to do the hard, right things.”
—MOIRA SOMERS, PhD, C.Psych, author of Advice that Sticks
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“Like its great title, Don’t Leave a Mess! has one outstanding element often missing in books about financial advice: its clear readability. Sandy Pollack writes in a straightforward, commonsense voice, easily conveying complex issues and recommendations in a very natural style. She boils things down to their essence without oversimplifying, using stories and examples to help explain things. If you want to read one book on family legacy planning, make it Don’t Leave a Mess.”
—JAMES GRUBMAN, PHD, family wealth consultant and author of Strangers in Paradise: How Families Navigate Wealth Across Generations
“Don’t Leave a Mess” was inspired by Sandy’s 25 years of experience in the financial industry working 1:1 with business owners and witnessing the disintegration of families due to poor planning and miscommunication of final wishes. This mission of this book is to show business owners that you still have time to get things right. Maybe you’ve done very well in business, but you have this nagging feeling in the back of your mind that your future plans are lacking. Or maybe you’re starting out in business and are on a trajectory to success, but finding it hard to navigate the legal, tax and personal complexity of the family enterprise you’re building.
Regardless of where you are in your entrepreneurial journey, “Don’t Leave a Mess” is your guide to ensuring that you’re protecting what you’ve built in your business and leaving a clear plan for your loved ones to follow after you’re gone.
Why “Don’t Leave a Mess” is a Game-Changer
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Protect Your Legacy
You’ve worked so hard to get where you are, and not having a financial plan for the inevitable can ruin that in minutes. Give voice to your story and make your intentions clear on how to protect & preserve what you’ve built.
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Protect Those You Care About
Employees. Friends. Families. Customers/Clients. Some or all of these important people are affected without a strong financial plan. With a focus on Legacy Thinking, you can ensure those you care about are protected after you’re gone.
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Gain Clarity
“Don’t Leave a Mess” shares many stores where the outcomes were less than ideal. Through this lens, you will gain clarity about how important protecting your legacy is…and what the next steps are for doing so.
About Sandy Pollack, CFP, CLU, TEP, FEA, MFA-P
Sandy Pollack is the founder of Trimaran Advisory Group Ltd., a financial advisory firm that goes beyond traditional business and estate planning. Sandy and her team recognize the unique family dynamics, as well as personal and economic complexities, entrepreneurs and self-employed professionals face.
Serving as both principal and Lead Financial Advisor, Sandy is an advocate for values-based legacy planning—believing that building wealth and managing wealth are not the same thing. Sandy is certified as a Family Enterprise Advisor, Certified Financial Planner, Chartered Life Underwriter, and Trust and Estate Practitioner. She lives in Ottawa, Canada, with her husband, Steven, their three children, and their family dog, Mia.
Don’t leave a mess behind for those you care about.
Your values and resilience led you to build a thriving business and create security for your family. The values have to come before the money. Unless you share and intentionally communicate those values with your children, they may lack confidence and be without a North Star ahead of them. Without that guide, the money may lead them astray.
Let’s ensure what you want is properly communicated so that everyone wins!
