It’s not about the money, with Cindy Arledge

In this episode of Money Tales, our guest is Cindy Arledge. When Cindy’s parents died, they left behind a complicated estate. Cindy says there was 17 trusts that co-owned four pieces of commercial real estate and the beneficiaries spanned multiple family members. Cindy was determined to realize her parents’ legacy and see her daughters receive the property that her parents wanted them to have. Other family members felt differently, so Cindy ended up buying out all of her nieces and nephews to settle the estate. This cost millions of dollars. Cindy borrowed against the real estate to make things work. For over 15 years, Cindy and her husband have carried substantial debt to be able to give her daughters their inheritance. Ironically, today, her girls aren’t interested in the real estate. This made Cindy put her ego aside and understand it’s not about what she wants or what her parents wanted. It’s about what her daughters want. Real legacy isn’t property or assets, it’s empowering each generation to be able to identify their gifts and talents so they can use them in a way that benefits the world.

Cindy brings a fresh new approach to an age-old problem: how to transfer wealth without destroying your beneficiaries’ ambition and drive, and their relationships to each other. Motivated by the most painful experience of her life – losing a relationship with one of her brothers over the shared inheritance – Cindy developed a process to help business owners preserve family relationships through emotional and financial storms.

While in the waiting room, the time between her parent’s death and the distribution of their estate, Cindy sought to understand what had happened to her family. In the process, she discovered a growing number of wealthy families who know how to retain wealth for 100 years, and longer. She was dismayed to discover that 7 out of 10 families lose wealth during the first transfer, and less than 10% retain wealth past the third generation. Shockingly, 97% of the time wealth loss was caused by the family. In other words, wealth loss is code word for family feud.

By reverse engineering the root cause, Cindy built a framework that is both common sense and practical to apply. Cindy calls this process Legacy Planning. Utilizing a lifetime of learning, Cindy crafted a systematic approach that includes aspects of spirituality, personal development, psychology, leadership training, financial literacy, and conscious capitalism.

Cindy holds an MBA and is a second-generation commercial real estate investment entrepreneur, best-selling author and matriarch of the family. Her vision is to see legacy planning become a recognized industry and help at least one million families create a Legacy Plan.

Cindy’s favorite role is that of grandmother, or “Elmo”. She enjoys each day as a gift with her husband, Gerald and their four-legged family members. They live in the DFW metroplex where they enjoy time spent with family and friends.

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