How an ethical will can help you leave a meaningful legacy

An ethical will can help you pass down your values for generations to come.

Most people understand the purpose of a legal will: to transfer material goods to your loved ones after your passing. But this document alone hardly acts to leave your values, lessons and wishes to those who mean the most. That’s where an ethical will comes in.

Whereas a legal will focuses on distribution of assets, an ethical will details your thoughts, emotions and beliefs. This is a means of sharing your personal values, life lessons, hopes and dreams for the future, and expressions of love and compassion with family and friends.

Your stories

Your loved ones probably know the basics, like your birthplace or your favorite cuisine, but this goes deeper. It’s an opportunity to retell the most important stories you want to pass down. Think about the moments in your life that define you.

Family stories often get forgotten once a generation passes on, and that’s because no one documents this history. An ethical will is a way to ensure future family members understand what shaped you as a person and contributed to your family’s current form.

Your advice

A life fully lived includes both triumphs and challenges, and people develop perspective through those experiences. An ethical will offers a space to share accrued wisdom with your loved ones.

If there are things you wish you’d done differently, now’s the time to share that message. Your loved ones will be able to take that information into account while making decisions for their own family. It might save them from making what you thought were your biggest mistakes.

Your values

Use this opportunity to share your life lessons with loved ones. It may be difficult to give guidance when there’s not a specific problem in front of you, but you can document your core values and how you came to realize these were guiding principles in your life.

Think of an ethical will as a way to help inform your family’s decisions when you’re not present. Eternalizing your personal guiding principles may help loved ones make choices, solve problems and stay true to themselves when they need support.

Your philanthropic vision

If philanthropy is part of the legacy you hope to establish, include the “why” behind your charitable giving. Your remarks can offer a moral compass for family members and may even inspire your inner circle to follow in your footsteps and support the causes you care about most.

In practice

Because an ethical will is not a legal document, how it’s written and shared is based on personal preference. Some people like to write everything at once and keep the document bundled with legal affairs to be found upon passing, while others prefer to share it while they’re alive to spark deep conversations with loved ones.

There are templates and starters you can find online to help guide your writing, but it’s ultimately up to you what you’d like to include. Some format their ethical will as a typed question-and-answer interview, while others may prefer a more stream-of-consciousness handwritten journal in memoir style. If writing is not your preferred method of storytelling, a recorded video also suffices as an ethical will.

No matter how you approach it, an ethical will can offer a meaningful way to pass on something that traditional estate planning documents often can’t – the values, wisdom, stories and hopes that defined your life. Make it personal and honest, and it can become a lasting gift for your loved ones and generations to come.