Millionaires

The Dallas Business Journal recently reported that almost 36,000 millionaires call Dallas, Texas home (January 20, 2006).

By 2010 that number will swell to nearly 60,000.

The number of millionaires will grow at a 65% clip over the next five years. Only Atlanta will have a faster rate of growth among this mega-rich class of Americans.

Dallas is rich.

The article goes on to describe the challenges facing wealthy Dallasites in preparing their heirs for wealth.

Financial managers work hard to develop investment products and training to assist wealthy entrepreneurs in just how to pass the wealth along without destroying their children.

The essay is more than worth reading.

One of the ways the super-wealthy can prepare for passing the financial torch is to remember the poor.

Establishing family foundations, naming competent non-profit organizations that are located close to communities of need in wills and being creative about estate planning and the use of insurance vehicles can insure that the wealth will continue to work after life ends for the financially successful.

At the same time, such steps can protect the children of the wealthy from the pitfalls of wealth without work, risk or effort.

The parable Jesus once told about the rich man who tore down his barns to build bigger barns instead of placing his surplus in the empty barns of his poorer neighbors comes to mind just here (Luke 12:13-34).

Low-income communities cannot rebound or grow to health without money, opportunity or economic advancement.

The rich of Dallas and other urban areas can make a real difference by simply managing their wealth and their amazing estates with intelligence, faithfulness and creativity while never forgetting the poor.