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An Ethical Will is a personal document that you can create to communicate your values, experiences, and life lessons to your family.
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The ethical will is an ancient document from the Jewish tradition.

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The original template for its use came from Genesis A dying Jacob gathered his sons to offer them his blessing and to request that they bury him not in Egypt, but instead in Canaan in the cave at Machpelah with his ancestors. Other biblical examples of ethical wills include Deuteronomy where Moses instructs the Israelites to be a holy people and teach their children, and Matthew 5 , where Jesus blesses his disciples.

Later they were written as letters.


  1. Jewish Ethical Wills (Tzava’ot).
  2. Pat McNees.
  3. Leaving a Legacy That Transcends Money.

Eleazar ben Samuel HaLevi of Mainz, Germany, who died , wrote to and instructed his sons to "Put me in the ground at the right hand of my father Medieval ethical wills contain the directions of fathers to their children or of aged teachers to their disciples. They were often written calmly in old age. Some of them were carefully composed, and read as formal ethical treatises.

But most were written in a personal writing style, and were intended for the private use of children and relatives, or of some beloved pupil who held a special place in his teacher's regard. Because they were not designed for publication, they often revealed the writer's innermost feelings and ideals. Israel Abrahams , while editor of the Jewish Quarterly Review , judged that many of these ethical wills are intellectually poor, but of a high moral level.

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The earliest extant ethical will was written by Eleazar, the son of Isaac of Worms about Purify thy body, the dwelling-place of thy soul Give of all thy food a portion to God. A last will and testament details how your financial assets are to be distributed. The role of an ethical will is to complement the legal will with information you would share if you were alive.

When read alongside the will, an ethical will may help reduce potential conflict within the family. Many experts in aging and legacy planning suggest that creating an ethical will can also be a journey of self-discovery. In some hospice settings, they encourage the creation of an ethical will as a way to help someone experience a sense of life purpose by articulating how they want to be remembered. Others believe the process of creating an ethical will can help someone come to terms with their own mortality by giving them a way to articulate life lessons and wisdom they want to leave behind.

The benefits of creating an ethical are not only reserved for those in the last stages of life. Typically, an ethical will is a handwritten letter addressed to your children and grandchildren. One suggestion to begin writing your own ethical will is to make notes about your core beliefs and some of the events in your life that led to those beliefs.

Ethical Wills Lend Clarity to Caregivers and Serenity to Seniors

You may also consider articulating gratitude for important people in your life, which may include family members and close friends. Other ways to structure your writing include focusing on how your personal experiences may be considered a mirror of larger societal trends. Or, you may want to cite historical events and their impact on you and your family i. Consider developing these thoughts over a period of time in order to allow yourself to fully process and prioritize which ideas to articulate in your final letter.

The letter, from a father to his son, is nearly 25 years old. It describes the impact of his conversion to Christianity late in life, and outlines his hopes for his son. It is a great example of what an ethical will is designed to do. Unlike a "living will" or "last will and testament," an ethical will isn't a legally binding document.

Is it possible to write an ethical last will & testament? | The Ethics of Writing

It could be a letter—ranging from half a page to a bound book—or a video recording. There are no rules governing what goes into it, or when the contents should be shared with the heirs, but the idea behind it is simple: Convey values, not valuables. See an example below.

Your Legacy - Wills

The earliest medieval documents were personal treatises on how to live an ethical life, written from father to son," she says. Only in the last decade or so, however, has the term "ethical will" entered the parlance of estate planning. Turnbull, a writer, stumbled on the concept in Needing a break from a story she was working on, she picked up the local newspaper lying on her desk and found mention of an ethical will buried in a column.

It has no personality, and there is no life or warmth in it. Love and affection and gratitude may be implied by the document, but are never stated.

Live Your Life as You Wish to Be Remembered

This sense that something was missing in the estate-planning process led one successful financial-services entrepreneur to Turnbull's firm as a customer. The year-old father of three worked together with her for a year on the message he wanted to leave with his children—"the things that you learned through the school of hard knocks," as he puts it.

The result is an page document that he says is much more than a memoir. But he cautions that the process requires time, energy and commitment. LINDA BEERMAN , chief fiduciary and risk officer at Atlantic Trust, a private wealth-management firm, and manager of its wealth strategies group, says ethical wills are an important part of helping prepare the next generation to become "good stewards" of the family wealth. BNY Mellon's Rogerson, who focuses on the steps families should take to ensure their heirs understand their parents' intentions, wastes no time introducing the idea.

Ken Kilday, a wealth manager with USAA, a financial-services company that provides insurance, banking, investment and retirement services to the U. It answers the question: What is this all for? With nearly every family there is a deeply emotional personal story behind the accumulation of the wealth.