Equal opportunity is far better than equal distribution? In this episode, I'm going
to address that equity can be the counterfeit of equality. I want to enlighten you on what's going
on right now in our great country of America. So, my name's Doug Andrew and I've helped many,
many people especially couples empower their children and grandchildren to foster an attitude
of responsibility and accountability. And so, even though I'm not an attorney, I've trained many,
many tax attorneys on tax law and how to establish what we call equal opportunity trust versus equal
distribution trust. Now, the reason why I'm concerned is right now there's a movement in our
great country of America to move towards equity. Now, equity sounds like a pretty good word but
oftimes it can be the counterfeit of equality. So, when we talk about equity oftimes, it is referring
to equal distribution. Now, to be honest with you, many people who are very successful in life,
they set up their trust so that the assets they leave behind to their children and grandchildren
can be left behind in a system of equal distribution. Because frankly,
it's the easiest way for attorneys to draft the documents. So, before I go any further,
as you listen and learn here, I want you to stay with me to the end because I have a free gift
for you that will help you understand this even deeper. But when we talk about equal distribution,
many times attorneys will sit down with their high net worth clients and they'll come in
to get a trust done and the attorney will usually say something like this:
"Well, you're in here to set up your trust. Now, you want to be fair, don't you?" Yeah.
"You want to divide up all of your assets equally, don't you? To distribute them to your children,
correct?" And they nod up and down. And if the attorney can get you to nod up and down, secretly,
they're going, "Hot diggity dog. I got another one." And it is so simple. They simply take the
couple's names and their children's names and they plug them into the boilerplate trust document.
And then they take the assets and put them in there. And guess what happens? When they die,
divided up and dumped in the children's lap in equal distribution. And then I say,
"You know what? I have found that there's nothing more unequal than the equal distribution
to unequals." And they go, "What?" Let me repeat what I just said. There's nothing more
unequal than the equal distribution to unequals. I've seen this happen
thousands of times. So, what do I mean by that? Now, as I explain this, if this intrigues you,
be sure and click like, share with somebody who ought to hear this. Subscribe to this channel. I
post an in-depth answer to a financial question or topic almost on a daily basis. And again,
I have a free gift for you at the end of this episode. So, what I mean by this is our creator
does not give (in my opinion) equal distribution of blessings of health (let's say) to all of us
regardless of how some of us may choose to abuse our bodies. No. Our creator does not give equal
health to the people who really take care of their health and eat right and exercise versus those who
abuse and they take harmful substances into their bodies. Our creator gives us equal opportunities,
not equal distribution. See, there are eternal principles. And so, I believe in equal
opportunities, not equal distribution. So, when people begin to understand what I'm talking about,
they realize, "Golly, yeah." Because I have seen many, many families that when they pass away,
the attorneys set it up and it's like killing the goosely and the golden eggs. I've seen
very wealthy families that are worth 20 million dollars. And they pass away and all of a sudden,
20 million dollars is divided up 4 ways among the kids. And I'm thinking of one family that was in
Napa Valley, California. The grandfather started this winery and came over the on a boat and he
plucked up some vines from the family vineyard in Italy when he left and he nurtured them in
his pockets in wet newspaper as he crossed the ocean. And when he landed in New York, he took
them off the ship. He smuggled them off the ship and he planted them and then he found the perfect
climate in Napa Valley, California. And all of these vineyards were because he had the wisdom.
And he went to work and he worked hard and he created this. But by the third generation,
the grandchildren was sort of born with a silver spoon in their mouth. They didn't even realize,
you know, when they heard the story, they said, "Wait a minute, you mean,
we used to be poor in this family? We used to be one of them?" The grandfather, he worked hard.
He had the wisdom he came over and he created this empire." And now, the second generation did a good
job carrying it on. But when they passed away, the attorney just... "You got to sell the winery.
In order to be fair, you got to divide it up." It wasn't a good time to sell the winery.
They still had to pay tax to the federal government on the estate tax. The government
doesn't care if you have to sell it at a discount. They will tax you on the full 20 million even if
you only sell it for 12 million. And so, if the trust says, "Nope, you got to sell it because
you got to divide it up equally and dump it in their laps." Now, the widow when she saw this,
she saw her family go from we to me overnight." Her 4 children were like, "When do I get my 5
million? When do I get my share?" She thought, "This isn't what we intended?" Now, she had a son
who was a physician and he was going to take his 5 million inheritance and build a medical plaza and
so forth. That sounded pretty good. A daughter, she didn't know anything about how to manage
money. But she was into art in the environment and she wanted to give to that. That's okay.
Another son, he was horribly addicted to drugs and alcohol. She knew 5 million dumped in his lap
in riotous living with his friends would be to his demise in less than 9 months. The last
son was trying to hold together the goose laying the golden egg, the winery.
But his hands were tied. He said, "No, you got to do equal distribution. You got to sell it."
Well, they decided to come together and vote. We shared with the family. "Hey,
this is how the family wealth was created." We captured this. "And why don't you keep the winery
in tackling the golden eggs? And the physician can still build his medical plaza. You can give
to art in the environment." But you don't just give a handout to the son to waste it on drugs
and alcohol. You provide equal opportunities to him. That if he steps up to the plate, he can use
money, he can use that money in the family bank to go out and be responsible and accountable but it's
not just this handout. That ruins him. I have seen many, many families who have gone through this
where dumping money in their laps actually ruins them. I could give you tons of stories about this.
So, I have advised many people to rethink their thinking to equal opportunity rules of governance
instead of equal distribution. And that's why I'm very concerned about this movement of equity
because equity, as it's being defined in America, is to redistribute and try to level the playing
field and take from those who work hard and give to those who maybe don't want to have skin
in the game. And that they're trying to create equity thinking it's equal distribution is going
to solve everything. No. Equal opportunity will allow people to step up to the plate,
to have some skin in the game that if they will be responsible and accountable they have equal
opportunities to be able to borrow money at a low-interest rate. To be able to have matching
funds to have an endowment to do something. So, that they can feel like they're taking ownership
instead of just given a handout. How do you teach this to your children and grandchildren?
Here's one way. My wife and I hold an annual grandpa's camp. And this is where
the grandchildren come. And they don't have their parents with them for 6 days. We actually have the
teenagers for the first 3 days and we do teenage talk. And we do high adventures. And then the
8-year-olds and older come to join them with me at 10,000 feet above sea level and we camp out. And
grandma takes the 4, 5, 6, and 7-year-olds. Then we bring them all together. And I was teaching
this concept to them. And I gave them all jars with 5 caterpillars in each. And they watched in
awe as these caterpillars made their cocoon their chrysalis. Now, I warned them in about 2 weeks.
When that caterpillar was going to emerge in the measure of its full creation as a monarch
butterfly, they would see it struggle and they would be tempted to help it out. But if they did,
the butterfly would die. And so, as grandparents and your parents, we don't want to hinder your
progress. When you struggle in life, we will always be there to give you a hand up but
never a handout. Because when you struggle, you gain strength by overcoming those. But
if you bail them out, if you're constantly rescuing them, they will never get strong.
They'll never learn how to respond with all their ability which is the word responsibility. You're
responding with all your ability. And I teach my grandchildren, "If you do that, a higher
power will always make up the difference." And so, when they see that monarch butterfly struggling,
they're so tempted to help it out. But they remember grandpa's lesson.
No, we need to let the butterfly get strength by going through these struggles. So, you can
teach your children and grandchildren about equal opportunities, being responsible, and accountable.
And if we do that in this great country of America, you will have equal opportunities
instead of equal distribution because the way that I hear them defining equity is really falling
under equal distribution. Let's just redistribute and give to these, "Let's make reparations for the
past. Let's do all of this." Thinking that that is going to solve everything. I think it's going to
cause worse problems if we go down that path. So, if this intrigues you and you would like to learn
how to teach responsibility and accountability to your children, your grandchildren, your employees
to take ownership. I would recommend that you get 2 of my most recent bestselling books.
And I'll show you how you can claim a free copy of one of them or how you can get 2 of them for just
a nominal contribution towards priority shipping. So, if you will go to laserfund.com,
that's one of my most recent bestselling books The LASER Fund. This talks about that concept on
the right-brain side of the book. This is actually 2 books in 1. And it's chapter
one of the orange side of this book. My other bestselling book is called Entitlement Abolition.
You can go to entitlementabolitionbook.com. But if you go to either one of those sites,
you contribute towards the shipping and handling and I will pay for the books. But there's a bundle
there. And so, if you want to pay for priority shipping, I'll send out both copies of those
books to you and you can learn about this concept and also how to teach responsibility
and accountability with money to those that you care about --your children and grandchildren,
how they can take ownership for a brighter future. And then they will begin to recognize
the difference between equity and equality. Equal opportunities versus equal distribution.