Jennifer Childress and I have just finished having a conversation, and I wanted to talk about it here. We were discussing legacy videos, which is something that Jennifer and her staff are going to help us provide as a new service to our clients with McIntyre Elder Law.
So what’s a legacy video? A legacy video is your story brought to life. It can be anything from words of wisdom to tales about your childhood – anything you want your loved ones and family to remember about you.
The Priceless Benefits of Legacy Videos
Have you ever seen the movie Brewster’s Millions? That’s what I always think of when legacy videos come up. The scene where they go to the attorney’s wood panel office, and he plays the great-uncle’s video explaining how he’d like to dispose of his assets.
Now, that was a funny movie, but think about how powerful it is to have a traditional, old-fashioned will reading. It could even be at the house, just sitting around in the den. You put on a DVD where mom, dad, grandma, or granpdpa are actually telling the family, “I love you guys. This is how I want to dispose of my property, my assets, and this is why I’ve done it this way”.
We live in a digital age now, so that video could also be on a USB drive or even stored in the cloud. It could be e-mailed around, with links sent to loved ones anywhere and to view at any time.
It doesn’t have to be limited to just wills and assets either. It’s a chance to pass a little knowledge or heritage on to the next generation. Just think about how much wisdom you will have once you’ve lived a full lifetime.
If you lived through something like WWII, the Civil Rights Movement, or the JFK assassination, what was your experience? You can impart your memories and history to your children, your grandchildren, and beyond.
Your morality, your wisdom, and how to act in certain situations and why. Things that they could look back upon and remember the way things were or the way things should be. It’s very powerful in a lot of ways.
Our personal history is history. It’s the story of us. How did we get from then to now? How did we get from a little colony of troublemakers to one of the most powerful nations on the planet?
You can’t grow if you don’t know where you’ve come from, even if it’s just a small, little thing – something seemingly insignificant.
There’s a saying that you’ve probably heard, which goes something like “Those who don’t pay attention to history are doomed to repeat it”. That’s what we want to prevent against, and to allow those experiences to go forward and not just be lost. That’s what a legacy video could do.
The Simple Process of Creating a Legacy
So how would we make a legacy video for one of our clients? Jennifer would meet with you either in your home or here in our office. They’ll set up a little equipment and you’ll have a talk.
Just an old fashioned tea party to get comfortable with each other. Jennifer will ask you about yourself. She’ll give you the chance to open up and tell your story, to her and the camera. They can learn about your experiences and see how things have changed and progressed since your time.
Maybe you tell them about your career and the importance of hard work. Maybe you came from nothing, a real underdog, and overcame it all to become a great success. This is your chance to tell that story to your children and grandchildren.
We’ll show you the video first, and it can be edited any way you see fit. Maybe you don’t want the kids to know everything – that’s what editing is about. We’ll just clip it out. It’s that easy.
Once you’ve got that video, it will be something that be passed on to the entire family.
Send Us Your Questions
We’re very excited to be working with Jennifer Childress to produce these legacy videos for you, our clients, to go along with your plans to protect your assets and legacies. It will be an awesome addition.
If you have any questions about our legacy videos, we’d be glad to talk with you about them.
