Time for an ethical will

With the approach of the April 15 tax filing deadline, many of us will be wondering what our most valuable legacy will really be. As we pull out the receipts and dig through the files, some of us will give thought to an ethical will - a place to hand on your most important treasure: your values and your wisdom.

An ethical will is a personal, more spiritual message than what you would include in your estate will, and might cover topics such as:

• Your thoughts and feelings about life


• The lessons you’ve learned


• Important messages you want to pass on to family, friends and future generations


• Your values in life


• An understanding that may be easier to say in print than in person


• Your final summation of the life you have lived and the people who made it worthwhile

You may ask and provide forgiveness. Through an Ethical Will, you pass on your values, not your valuables. You share the voice of your heart and the legacy of your spirit.

The desire to pass on more than possessions goes back thousands of years and is recorded in the Old Testament. President Obama may be the most famous, contemporary, and youngest writers of an ethical will with his letter to his daughters:

I hope both of you will take up (this) work, righting the wrongs that you see and working to give others the chances you've had. Not just because you have an obligation to give something back to this country that has given our family so much -- although you do have that obligation. But because you have an obligation to yourself. Because it is only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you will realize your true potential.

The ethical will has also featured in fiction and film. In the movie My Life, Michael Keaton has everything going for him - until he learns he is terminally ill. The ethical will on video that he creates for his unborn child is both funny, highly affecting and a voyage of discovery for his character. Well worth looking at.

Another example of an ethical will in cinema is the 1978 Superman film with Christopher Reeve. In that movie, Superman's father is forced to send his child to another planet (Earth). He sends along with him a green crystal - which is like a super-duper DVD. When Supe is older, that magic crystal tells him the story of his heritage and what he can expect of life. He is able to learn what his responsibilities will be living among us poor benighted human kind.

In the real world, an ethical is not very different to the one Supe's Dad packed for him. But, instead of those crystals, we have - of course - the video camera, DVDs and ethical wills on video. Five Steps to a Video Ethical Will.

Through your ethical will, you can: Share messages to future generations; Share what you value; Express your hopes and dreams; Give advice; Tell stories; Share lessons you’ve learned in life and advice; Seek and give forgiveness; Express love and understanding; and Show who you are as a person.

An Ethical Will can be made at any time, not just at the end of life. While there is more urgency when there is a serious illness, or advanced age, it can also be created at other milestones in life, such as the marriage of a child and/or birth of a grandchild.

Interested in reading more? National non-profit CancerCare offers a four page guide: "Sharing Memories, Values and Hopes". It's in PDF and you can download it by searching for it at the www.cancercare.org website.

An ethical will is not a legal document and is not intended to bind descendants. But it can be recorded in writing - in a document or a book. An ethical will can also be recorded to video; and I have been privileged to assist a number of people with ethical wills on video.

Don't let tax time come and go without giving some thought to your most important treasure - your values and your wisdom.

And for professionals: make sure you consider ethical wills when helping your client plan for retirement and their passing: Ethical Wills: The Missing Piece of Estate Planning.