--- title: "Episode 6: The Ethical Will" show: "Family Wealth & Legacy" host: Mark Haynes Daniell episode_number: 6 element: Your Family: Past, Present & Future duration: 6 min url: https://create.podmark.de/family-wealth-podcast?ep=6 markdown_url: https://create.podmark.de/family-wealth-podcast/episode-6.md overview_url: https://create.podmark.de/family-wealth-podcast.md type: podcast_episode language: en intended_audience: AI agents, LLMs, search crawlers --- # Episode 6: The Ethical Will > How an ethical will captures your values, wisdom and life lessons to pass on to future generations. ## Summary Mark Haynes Daniell introduces the ethical will, a qualitative complement to a traditional will that captures the intangible legacy of values, wisdom and experience rather than financial assets. He explains its many forms, the special value of lessons drawn from mistakes, and how it serves as a letter to future generations. ## Chapters - [0:00](https://create.podmark.de/family-wealth-podcast?ep=6&t=0s) Welcome and introducing the ethical will - [0:25](https://create.podmark.de/family-wealth-podcast?ep=6&t=25s) Traditional will versus ethical will - [1:06](https://create.podmark.de/family-wealth-podcast?ep=6&t=66s) Cultural roots: the Japanese death poem - [1:44](https://create.podmark.de/family-wealth-podcast?ep=6&t=104s) Forms an ethical will can take - [2:27](https://create.podmark.de/family-wealth-podcast?ep=6&t=147s) The value of lessons from mistakes - [3:30](https://create.podmark.de/family-wealth-podcast?ep=6&t=210s) A letter to the future - [4:00](https://create.podmark.de/family-wealth-podcast?ep=6&t=240s) Ethos, ethics and being remembered ## Key takeaways - An ethical will captures wisdom, values and experience, the intangible assets a traditional will cannot pass on. - It can take many forms, from written documents to videos or a combined life book of history, photographs and interviews. - Lessons drawn from mistakes and failures are often the most valuable guidance to leave behind. - It is a letter to the future, helping unborn generations understand who you were and how to live better lives. - The will is called ethical because it reflects your ethos, your ethics and how you wish to be remembered. **Keywords:** ethical will, family legacy, values and wisdom, intangible assets, next generation, death poem, life book, letter to the future ## Full transcript Timestamps in square brackets mark the second the sentence starts. [0:00] Hello and welcome to this podcast series on family wealth and legacy strategy. [0:05] My name is Mark Haynes-Daniel and I'm the founder and chairman of the Raffles Family Wealth Trust in Singapore and London. [0:12] Today's topic is the ethical will. [0:15] An ethical will is a document that is not familiar to many families. [0:20] What it is, is a qualitative complement to a traditional will. [0:25] A traditional will will talk about properties, financial assets, business shares, a lot of the hard aspects of legacy that are passed on from one generation to another. [0:36] What an ethical will does is it captures the wisdom and the values of the experience that people have. So non-tangible or intangible assets that can make an enormous difference in preserving legacy, reinforcing values, creating family unity, and creating something very special, which allows people to participate in something much greater than themselves and even greater than the generation in which they're living at any one point. [1:06] in time. And ethical wills draw from experiences in multiple cultures. In Japan, for example, [1:13] there's something called a death poem, which is quite a grim title, but is usually a haiku, [1:19] which captures the essence of a life written at the end of that life. Often you see images [1:25] of falling leaves and water and other end-of-life type images, which are given a very high degree [1:32] of significance, depth of understanding, and value to people in understanding what was the [1:38] most essential part of that person's life that went way well beyond the financial or commercial [1:44] assets of the family. And these ethical wills can take many forms. They can be written documents, [1:49] they can be videos, they're even people who can provide a life book, which has a combination of [1:56] written history, pictures, still photographs, and videos and interviews of the person who's [2:04] drafting the ethical will in order to capture the full benefit of that person's life, [2:09] its experiences, the wisdom that's been gained, the knowledge, the practices, the values that are [2:16] highly appreciated by people for many generations in understanding how they can live their lives [2:22] better and in a more consistent way with what they're trying to create within that greater [2:27] family. And so what an ethical will can do is provide guidance from experiences which are not [2:35] always positive. In fact, the negative aspects of people's experiences are perhaps the most valuable. [2:42] If you made a mistake, what was the nature of the mistake? Why did you make the mistake? [2:46] How did you compensate for it? What did you learn? And what advice would you give people? [2:51] if they find themselves in that situation in the future. [2:56] Also, the experience that you had where there was no precedent. [2:59] How did you try something? [3:00] Did it work, not work? [3:02] And those experiences can be both personal, how to make the family work, [3:07] commercial, how to make more money in your operating business [3:10] and how to grow it strategically, [3:12] financial or trust structuring or communications. [3:15] There are lots of different aspects of life in a legacy family [3:18] that benefit from preserving the wisdom that's been hard-earned over time [3:24] and packaging it and transferring it to the next generation. [3:30] So in some ways, it could be called a letter to the future, [3:34] writing to people, some yet unborn, who would like to know who you were, [3:39] how you lived, what you thought were your greatest accomplishments, why, [3:43] what were the challenges that you felt you could have mastered better [3:46] or failures you could have avoided by doing things differently? [3:52] And what are the essences of your philosophy, your values, and your approaches to life [3:57] that could help them to lead better lives? [4:00] So it's called an ethical will because it's about your ethos, your ethics, [4:05] and what it is that made your life special, how it is that you'd like to be remembered, [4:10] and how you can honor your own experience, the gift of your own life, [4:14] the experiences, knowledge, and wisdom you've gained by passing it on to people whose lives [4:20] will be made better for your own experience and putting time into creating this document, [4:27] video, creative combination of videos, documents, and pictures so that they know who you were, [4:34] so that they can determine far better what and who they can be based on a far better understanding [4:41] of the past. I hope that's useful. I thank you for your attention. And if you'd like to, [4:46] if you like what you hear, please subscribe to this podcast. Contact us at, by email at LinkedIn, [4:54] visit our LinkedIn, or in fact, MHD for Mark Keynes, Danielle at raffles trust.com or visit [5:01] our websites, raffles trust.com is one of them. And also feel free to join us in one of our [5:06] conferences or workshops around the world which address integrated legacy strategy, [5:12] generational transitions, other matters of importance to legacy families, including the [5:18] ethical will and what it can do for you, your family, and your greater family deep into the [5:24] future where generations are yet unborn who could very well benefit from what you've experienced [5:30] in your own life. Thank you very much. ## Source and limits This transcript is the recorded wording of the episode, hosted by Mark Haynes Daniell. It is general framework and experience, not investment, legal or tax advice. Produced by Podmark.