AUTHOR:
Coventry Edwards-Pitt (BP Books, 2014)
REVIEWER:
Sara Finkelstein, Manager, 21/64
BOOK LINK:
REVIEW:
At 21/64, many clients ask us how to think about raising well-adjusted children amid affluence. Raised Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise: Lessons from Successful Inheritors on How They Got That Way by Coventry Edwards-Pitt is an insightful look into the key factors for raising children who are born into wealth that ensure that they become thriving, well-adjusted and contributing members of society. What is so unique about this book, is that, for the first time, readers gets an inside perspective from the now grown-up inheritors on how they believe they became the success stories they are today, as well as an outside perspective from Edwards-Pitt, tying everything together, giving parents and professionals in the field the important lessons-learned for them to use.
This book does a great job of acknowledging and outlining the challenges that wealthy parents have child rearing. These parents, along with all the concerns of every parent, have the additional burden of balancing between using their resources to provide their children with opportunities, while teaching them the responsibility that comes with having wealth. Edwards-Pitt taps a variety of child development research, numerous interviews with now adult inheritors and their parents, interesting anecdotes, as well her professional experience in the field to engage the reader and provide him/her with a clear, useable guide on navigating this balance.
Raised Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise: Lessons from Successful Inheritors on How They Got That Way covers this topic from a variety of angles, from defining what being a “successful” inheritor means; the central role of parents and some essential “do’s and don’ts”; how parents can transmit positive financial values to children, including being open about financial issues, establishing sound money values, and, most essential, providing a good example by modeling those values; the importance of self-sufficiency, with special emphasis on the value of earning your own money and developing independence; and finally, Edwards-Pitt also outlines key ways that parents can prepare their children for this autonomy through positive encouragement, clear boundaries, and objective guidelines.
These last elements, which 21/64 also emphasizes, helps inheritors become confident, resilient and successful individuals. This book is well worth reading for parents and advisors, as well as inheritors themselves who are interested in this topic.