Becoming a Hollywood movie star.  Amassing great wealth.  Most of us have daydreamed about both at one point or another about financial windfall. But while the downside of fame is well-documented in tragic celebrity stories, very few people realize how unexpected wealth can completely upend their lives.  In fact, according to the  National Endowment for Financial Education, seventy percent of people who suddenly come into a large sum of money will declare bankruptcy within a few years. Many also suffer from “Sudden Wealth Syndrome,” which includes a host of symptoms including depression, anxiety, paranoia and substance abuse.   Managing money is like any other skill: you have to acquire not only theoretical knowledge but the practical tools to apply it. It doesn’t matter if it comes from financial windfall like an inheritance, a winning lottery ticket or a business…

Technology has given us greater control in many areas of our lives, from managing our health to planning vacations on the fly. Yet some industries, including that of financial services, have been slow to utilize digital tools or encourage their clients to do so. This has exacerbated the already significant challenges around estate planning, most notably the generation gap among older principals and their millennial and GenX heirs. The younger generations receive and process information differently; they also prefer to communicate in different ways. If you are still relying on reports from your financial advisor, know this: your children and grandchildren will one day be using such tools to manage your estate, especially if it saves them a phone call to said advisor. Meeting them where they stand now can help them avoid pitfalls, and possibly financial ruin, in…