Abating Existential Dread by Building Connections with your Ancestors and Legacies for your Descendents

I don't know...I don't know...

General anxiety can be driven by a lack of connection with the past and uncertainty about the future. This is often linked to what is termed, “existential dread” or “existential anxiety,” which is essentially a feeling of uneasiness about the fundamental nature of one’s existence or place in the ongoing march of events in human history.

To address a lack of connection with the past, some choose to dive into family history or genealogy to research their family’s progenitors. This can help to anchor an individual to a larger stream of family members and to their former culture or society. Knowing, for example, an ancestor’s accomplishments can bolster that descendant’s confidence in their life goals and simultaneously strengthen their ability to imagine a favorable outcome if they attempt to do something that has been done before. For instance, if your grandparent was a surgeon or a judge, it is apparent that you too can become one.

For example, I was astounded to discover that my great-great grandfather was the monarch of Sweden… My first humorous thought was, “Where is my palace? And why wasn’t I born in Stockholm?” My second thought that was much more sobering was, “I am the son of a royal heritage.” Since that time, I have often pondered on the legacy of my family. I am directly connected to Gustav Adolph I, the military genius and champion of Protestantism in the Thirty Years War. If he was my ancestor, then I can be amazing and great too.

Existential dread about the future is a more nebulous challenge. While we can learn a great deal about the past, the future is ultimately unknown. Take for instance the very real potential for a car accident. Statistics are a little bit unclear about the likelihood of being in one: An average person statistically likely to be in 3-4 auto accidents during their lifetime…or stated another way, drivers are likely to file an accident insurance claim approximately once every 17.9 years. Does this mean that after filing a claim, you can waive off auto insurance for another 17 years or so? Nope. You could have another accident the next day and nothing for the rest of your life. It’s uncertain.

I did not expect that!

Anxiety or dread resulting from that uncertainty can be addressed in specific ways by directly facing statistical certainties and addressing them with a plan. For instance, the following events are virtually guaranteed to occur during an individual’s lifetime:

1.      Aging and disability (Everyone will age and the likelihood of being disabled increases as we age: 28.7% of adults are disabled when under 50 years old and this increases another 23.9% between the ages of 65-74 and finally rises another 45.3% for those who live longer than 74 years of age…so 97.9% of adults who live past 74 will be disabled at some point);

2.      Death (100% Statistical certainty);

3.      Taxes Come Due (99.9999% Statistical certainty – unless the entire financial system disappears into the void somehow and nothing replaces it… which would be unlikely in the extreme);

4.      Value of Investments & Property will rise (Nothing is guaranteed; however, historically real property has risen 3-5% in value per year, stock market has hovered between 5-11% per year with other investments similarly growing over time);

5.      Business transition (Statistically, if you own a business and do not have a transition plan, your business will shut down or disappear after you are no longer operating it – there’s an estimated 70% likelihood of this happening); and lastly,

6.      Family conflict over estate distribution (Between 58-79% of families report substantial conflict in determining distribution of generational wealth with some families reporting total loss of the estate due to costs of litigation).

These uncertainties can be planned for thus relieving a significant element of dread over what the future holds.

For example, I had been doing estate and business planning for decades when my spouse asked me, “Where’s our estate plan?” It was the same old situation where the cobbler’s children had no shoes… I immediately coughed in embarrassment and set about drafting and implementing our estate and business transition plan(s), purchasing the necessary insurance, and setting aside assets for retirement, disability and our eventual needs. I had been preaching “preparation” and had failed to do it myself. Ouch!

Recommendations:

Don’t live in dread of what the future might hold. Face it and Plan for it. Even if your plans don’t work out, you won’t have to live in fear of “what if” because you have addressed the most likely outcomes already. Here’s what you can do:

·         Establish an estate plan that is customized to your situation and family circumstances to address uncertainty regarding who will care for you, who will have responsibility for your finances, who would care for your dependents if something should happen, who gets what assets while avoiding unnecessary taxation and legal battles between beneficiaries, etc.

·         If you have a business, establish a business transition plan that is customized (again) to your situation and address who will own the business and who will be in charge clearly so that there is a not a “gap” in leadership that could result in a business failure.

·         Utilize financial tools that are locked into statistically certain events like various types of insurance – disability insurance is a clear choice, long term care insurance is a very commonly recommended product and life insurance always pays out if the policy is properly drafted and maintained.

·         Save, Retire Debt and Invest for your future needs in a balanced manner so that your investments are as diverse as necessary and your allocation of revenue isn’t slanted too much toward one portion of your financial picture or another. (There’s a great deal more to be said about this…)

Be Free!

Be free of the uncertainty and inject happiness and contentment into your daily life.

Curry Andrews, Attorney at Law