Shari Fleming, Esq., AEP® started Our Legacy Matters as an effort to promote the concept of legacy planning and to curate a space for people to begin thinking about foundational concepts that are necessary to create and complete comprehensive legacy plans that effectively meets the goals they desire. Legacy planning has many components. One of which is estate planning, and a significant amount of people are not aware of the depth of the importance of estate planning. To facilitate an understanding the importance of estate planning, we must start with a current problem, which is the racial wealth gap.

The racial wealth gap refers to the difference in financial wealth between White households and Black and Latinx households. Financial wealth is a measure of assets (the value of the things you own) minus debts. There are many initial causes for the racial wealth gap that can be identified in American History, including but not limited to, the legalized slavery of people of African descent, the Jim Crow era, the denial of government benefits to Black veterans, and the practices of redlining and predatory lending within the housing market. Lack of ownership opportunity and failure to properly plan for the transfer of assets upon death (estate planning) are compounded causes of the racial wealth gap. Financial wealth isn’t instantaneous. It is built over time. The disparity highlighted by the racial wealth gap is due to White communities having access to ownership over long periods of time, while simultaneously denying ownership opportunity to Black and Latinx communities. If no action is taken to address the racial wealth gap, Black household are anticipated to hit zero or negative net worth by 2053, and Latinx households are anticipated to hit zero or negative net worth 2073. Our Legacy Matters was started because WE ARE IN FINANCIAL CRISIS! This crisis is not limited to Black and Latinx communities. This crisis is an American crisis. Some remedies to this crisis are outside of our ability and control as individuals. However, we all have the ability to properly plan our estates. If you own anything, take it seriously and create a plan to transfer it!!!