Excerpt From The Interview

When parents have made the effort to come up with the plan, sometimes, they don’t communicate the plan. Sometimes, the reason that they’re fearful is because there’s dollar signs or zeros behind it. Because they don’t talk about money, there’s no concept of how much wealth there is, whether big or small. Several years ago, I met with an individual who had one daughter who was a social worker whose husband was also in a medical job. 

They made good money, and were living a great life in the Midwest. He had amassed significant wealth, sold a couple of businesses, reinvested, sold some other businesses, and came up with a number that he wanted to put in the trust for his daughter. It was a substantial number, but it was ten percent of what he had. The other ninety percent was going to be put in a family foundation. 

We were visiting with him and going over the plan, and he was making a decision about who to use as trustee. And I said, ‘Have you told your daughter the plan?’ He was like, ‘Oh, no. I’m not going to tell her the plan because she has no idea how much we have.’ I said, ‘That’s okay. You don’t have to talk numbers. But it’s really important to tell her the plan. I promise you if you don’t tell her the plan minus the numbers, It will never be about what you gave. It’ll be about what you took away. And you didn’t take it away. You just made a plan for it.’ 

About Michelle Diamond

Michelle Diamond is Chief Development Officer. She joined the Cumberland Trust team in 2001, at the firm’s founding. At Cumberland’s start, Michelle, a Trust Officer, helped to establish the open architecture platform that focuses on helping families and forming partnerships with advisors. Early on, she developed the Special Needs Trust group, serving the needs of client family members with disabilities. As Cumberland Trust grew, Michelle developed the blueprint for expansion into regional markets and she worked to open our nine regional offices. Currently, Michelle manages the business development team, who work in Cumberland Trust’s headquarters and in each of its regional offices. She is responsible for overseeing the development team and its new trust opportunities.

Prior to joining Cumberland Trust, she was a Trust Officer at First Tennessee providing account and administration support to families in the areas of personal trust, employee benefits, and investment management.

Michelle holds a B.A. in Business Administration from Hanover College in Hanover, Indiana. She was awarded the Certified Trust and Financial Advisor Designation (CTFA) and is a graduate of Cannon Trust School, through Cannon Financial Institute.Michelle is a regular speaker for industry-related events nationwide, and she has been published in The Tennessean.

Links Mentioned: 

The Cumberland Trust

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