The great wealth transfer: Biblical guidance for Christian families

For the first time in modern history, this present generation of 28- to 43-year-olds will not achieve a higher standard of living than their parents. 

This is due to a number of factors including wage stagnation, exorbitant house prices, equally exorbitant student debt and an unstable job market.

Paradoxically, this same generation stands to inherit the greatest amount of wealth in history. The Financial Times estimates this to be about £8.3 trillion in the US, £2.7 trillion in Europe and £2.2 trillion in Asia.

For Christian families fortunate enough to find themselves in this situation, what are the implications, and how can families think biblically about the great wealth transfer?

Before I go any further, it’s worth acknowledging that the nuclear family has increasingly fragmented over the last several decades, and you may be coming at this from a perch of having children who are not walking with the Lord, or having a blended family of both biological and step-children, or being estranged from your children, or perhaps not having any children at all. If that’s you, I encourage you to consider spiritual children and/or mentees as ‘next generation’. 

Talk about it

One of my soap boxes is to encourage Christians in the UK to talk more about money and giving. This becomes especially important within families who steward a lot of wealth. If parents do not speak to their children about their wealth – what they’re doing with it and why – they run the risk of their children:

• feeling overwhelmed by the responsibility and potentially making poor choices
• not understanding or valuing their parents' heart for stewardship and potentially squandering the wealth
• doing things their own way and potentially dishonouring their parents’ wishes
• feeling resentful that they did not inherit as much as they thought they would

Being intentional and speaking openly as a family about your wealth will give you, as parents, a chance to inculcate your children with conviction about and purpose for what God has blessed you, and them, with. And it will give your children the opportunity to share their own heart and views on how to use wealth for good, as these may differ from yours.

There is a plethora of information out there and plenty of professional advisors who would love to be called upon to manage your part in the great wealth transfer, but as Christians let us challenge ourselves to look to Scripture as a first point of departure.

David and Solomon

One of King David’s ambitions was to build a temple for the Lord in Jerusalem. But God explicitly told him that He didn’t want David to do the building; instead, this project was to be passed on to his son, Solomon. (We read this exchange in 2 Samuel 7.) We know that David was a very wealthy man, and that the temple building project would require vast amounts of resources; thus, perhaps we can consider this instance as one of the great wealth transfers of ancient times. (We read about David’s vast preparations and provisions in 1 Chronicles 22, 28 and 29.)

There are many takeaways from these passages, but here are a few that stand out to me.

1. David’s desire to build a temple for the Lord comes after he’s built an extravagant palace for himself. This invites a question: how many of us might come to the end of our working lives and realise we’ve had similar priorities?
2. While we don’t have a way of knowing how much Solomon’s own ideas were welcomed in the planning and preparation, I think we can assume that David spent a lot of time imparting his vision and motivation to Solomon. There’s no way this kind of philanthropic project could have been executed otherwise.
3. While this transfer started well, it didn’t end well. Solomon went on to accumulate even more wealth than his father and ended his life in a downward spiral of idolatry and deception. I’m not saying there is a direct correlation between inheriting wealth and getting caught in a downward spiral, but there are many temptations and pitfalls to contend with.  
4. There’s something to be said for timing. While the passages in 1 Chronicles make it sound like the handover went smoothly, 1 Kings 1 paints a very different picture. Here we see an elderly king clinging to his position and refusing to pass his mantle to Solomon until a coup by another son forces his hand.

What can we learn from this?

1. If we want our children to use their inherited wealth wisely and generously, then it’s vital that they witness their parents modelling the right priorities. If I’ve pursued the accumulation of wealth more than I’ve pursued generously sharing my resources, my children are more likely to do the same.
2. If we intend to pass our legacy on to our children, then we must involve them in the conversation early on. And we must be careful to allow room for their own ideas, lest they grow disillusioned and disengage.
3. We cannot control what our children do with the wealth we give them; we can only do our best to model the right heart posture before God when it comes to our resources. The best way to do this is to teach our children that everything we have comes from God and is to be used for His glory, not for our own material excess.
4. Know when to pass on the mantle. If we hang on too long, we risk opening the door to unnecessary division and conflict within our family. It’s also worth considering transferring wealth earlier rather than later in order to be philanthropically active as a family. As in a relay race, the person being passed the baton must for a time be running at the same speed as his or her predecessor.

The great wealth transfer

When the time comes to hand over our resources and our legacy to the next generation, there are many things to consider. We’re not just handing over our money; we’re handing over all of what we’ve learned and experienced in our walk with God. I would argue that this spiritual transfer is even more significant than any other kind. For that, we have many biblical examples we can turn to: Moses and Joshua, Elijah and Elisha, Paul and Timothy and, of course, Jesus and His Church.

Jesus told His disciples to go and make disciples of all nations, akin to what His Father had said to Adam and Eve way back in the beginning: be fruitful, fill the earth and have dominion over it. Our mission has always been to steward the earth, to see it flourish and to point people to a reconciled relationship with their Creator. To do this, God has put resources into our hands to be stewarded well and faithfully passed on to the next generation. It’s imperative that we do this well as part of our Christian witness. An unbelieving world cannot help but pay attention to an authoritative Church taking its mission seriously.

For some practical information on leaving a legacy, check out Stewardship’s legacy week in September!

Recommended further reading:

Three steps to raising a generous child

Leaving a legacy: Making charitable gifts in your will 

The importance of family involvement in legacy planning