What is generational wealth and how do I pass it on? When should I start estate planning? These questions are often asked, and yet the answers may still be unclear, which is why we brought on TD experts Jermaine Dacres and Latanya Monteith Housen to help us better understand these topics on this episode of Building Better with Brandon powered by TD.
Jermaine Dacres is a financial planner with TD Wealth who explained generational wealth as ‘the process of accumulating and transferring assets’.
“For example, if you’ve got an investment, if you have a house, if you have a cottage, any asset or anything that appreciates in value over time, you want as an individual to be able to pass that to people of your choice.”
Dacres explained that there are three keys to building generational wealth. The first is knowledge.
“You have to determine what you need to do to build and sustain the wealth,” Dacres explained, adding that this is where a financial planner can be helpful.
The next key? Consistency.
“You’re gonna need to have that ability [and] that determination to stick to wealth-building habits once you’ve actually started. Your planner will be able to put a plan in place for you and now you’ve got to use that as a guiding document to continue your goals,” he explained, adding that you can use that plan to keep track of your wealth journey.
And finally, planning.
“Ensuring that you put plans in place [so] that whatever wealth you’ve accumulated goes directly to the people of your choice,” Darces shared, explaining that this is very important.
“If not, what happens is you’ll accumulate the wealth, and then you may not have a proper plan in place, and perhaps half of it goes to taxes or some of it goes to the government, or just ends up somewhere where you didn’t plan for it to end up, and now instead of passing or building generational wealth it will actually hamper the next generation from being able to take on better opportunities.”
As a financial planner, Darces meets with many people looking to get that coin and build wealth for themselves and the next generation of their family. So what are some of their biggest concerns? He says that people are worried that they don’t have enough.
“People are worried and concerned about not even having enough right now in their life, but they’re also worried that in the future, whoever is coming after me whether it be my children, my grandchildren, whatever institution or group that people want to pass their wealth to, they’re worried that there won’t be enough.”
Darces says that the best way to combat this is by starting to save sooner rather than later.
“The time to act is now. If you’re interested in building generational wealth you need to start right away.”
Resources That You Can Access Through TD
Latanya Monteith Housen is TD’s Regional Manager, Black Community Business Development, Metro West. She joined us to share some tips, as well as some of the resources that TD offers to help you start and continue to build generational wealth.
“You can start with any amount. It’s not the amount you start with, it’s the consistency over time.”
“The earlier you begin, the better your chances of stacking enough funds [for] the later seasons,” Monteith Housen explained.
Monteith Housen explained the meaning of Time Value of Money, the concept that a sum of money is worth more now than the same sum will be at a future date due to its earnings potential in the interim.
“Once you understand that you’ll understand that you have opportunities to grow your money over time.”
Monteith Housen explained that the TD Black Customer Experience strategy enables TD to leverage its services and support for the Black community in particular. She shared that TD has furthered its reach by having a network of managers, leaders, and personal bankers, who are all trained to give elevated advice to the Black community and to support them in their banking and investing journey.
“Because of this, we’re supporting the removal of obstacles that are usually faced by minorities within banking.”
Monteith Housen explained that TD also provides financial literacy sessions within Black communities, and also partner and sponsor some organizations that support the Black Customer Experience.
Monteith Housen shared how TD is helping Black-owned businesses with the Black Entrepreneur Credit Access Program, how she is teaching her kids about generational wealth, and more. Plus we hit the streets to see how much Toronto knows about generational wealth, and what their experiences and goals are on this episode of Building Better with Brandon.
