This book gives a lot of food for thought about leaving a legacy. The personal stories from his life were compelling and I was inspired by his ability to be a leader by example in his life. I was surprised by some of his conclusions and practices around legacy building; however, after he explains his case, he brings compelling insights that have opened my mind to other possibilities when it comes to leaving a legacy. If you read this book you will be inspired to look at things differently and for the long run.

this book reminds me of the quote “we all die. the goal isn’t to live forever, but to create something that will. what’s your legacy?” I don’t remember where I heard it, but this theme was felt throughout the book. reads fairly straightforward and there’s a bit of a personal touch making it feel like a memoir. overall, good read.

A very principled and conscious approach to building wealth is championed in this book, and is explored in a refreshing way that integrates purpose and philosophy. It's a good moral check to ensure that wealth-building is done responsibly and with values in mind – however, some readers may find the open philosophical format less appealing than a more procedural set of steps, or the various iterations of how-to breakdowns you might find in other books about wealth management.

I'm a fan of Dave Ramsey and his humorous and helpful advice, so I can honestly say that I enjoyed this book. This was a very interesting read and brilliant advice. Now, will I ever become a millionaire? No, but you can't blame a girl for dreaming. 😉 Besides, even if I never become the top 5 wealthiest people on the earth, I can think like one and implement the wisdom in this book for not only my finances but for everything in my life. Diligence and excellence don't begin and end with money; they begin in your heart and that alone will bear fruit in every aspect of your life. ❤

Release day: 04/15/25

I received an arc from Forbes Books via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions and statements are my own.

A great book, but I think you are talking to a very small audience. Unfortunately, there are too many of those who don't have it to worry about how you preserve it.

There was a good flow to it at the beginning, but then it became disjointed and I didn't know if I was reading a book about how to operate a business or how to become wealthy. There were three sections to it as it is read. The first section is about how to leave a legacy to your family, not just through wealth but through moral standard. Then the second bit of information was about how to operate a small business. Then the third section seemed to be about a little of everything. I was very interested in the title and the beginning of the book, but lost interest due to the " hey look at me and how successful MY business was" attitude for the rest of the writing.

I really enjoyed the Spirit of Wealth Preservation by Ken Polk. Ken Polk dives deep into what it means to not only to preserve wealth during one's lifetime but to also take care of a person's family for generations to come. His insights into what it takes to help his clients become financially secure is useful no matter what type of financial profession you are a part of. I highly recommend this book, and it is an excellent reminder of how financial advisors can make a lasting impact in client's lives. Excellent read!

This felt like a book I would read during a job orientation. It’s basically the history of Arlington Family Office. Some tips and tricks to owning a business and branding it and a checklist of how to preserve wealth but mostly just an autobiography.

To me, this book lacks direction. I still can't figure out who the target audience of the book is supposed to be (more on that below). There were a lot of words spent but not a lot of substance imparted.

It started with a lot of the author's own history, which wasn't exactly gripping and didn't seem to be necessary backstory for the content of the book. But that's fine.

As far as philosophy goes, there's quite a bit of reference to religion. I didn't reduce my rating based on that, but focusing on religion can sometimes be alienating to non-religious readers. I think it's a common misconception that most/all non-religious folks (like myself) aren't concerned with being good stewards of their funds and trying to help others, whether family members or outsiders, in education, wealth-building, and living principled lives. If the author acknowledged his own religion as a driving force but made even the slightest nod toward acknowledging that others may have different driving forces, but that regardless, people should identify the values they want to preserve and their motivation for passing them along to the next generation, that would have made me feel more included instead of preached to and then sidelined.

The author spends a lot of time extolling the virtues of his company, Arlington. At one point he had gone on for so long about the company and describing why it's so much better than other wealth management/advisory firms that I was wondering whether the whole book was supposed to just be a sales pitch to try to get new clients in for the company. The provided checklist of (somewhat odd) questions to ask a wealth manager before hiring them seemed to reinforce that notion.

But then, after it kept going, including (maybe too much) detail about why their firm structures things the way they do, I started wondering whether the book was actually aimed at other wealth management firms. Maybe the point of the book was to explain their inner workings and to try to encourage other firms to set themselves up in a similar way so that they could assist their own clients in purpose-driven wealth management? When he was discussing "clarity" in the last portion of the book, it seemed geared toward instructing wealth managers to rewrite their materials to avoid jargon to make it easier for clients to understand what was really happening.

So I don't know exactly who the target audience of the book is supposed to be. It kind of seems like the author doesn't know, either.

I really wanted to like this book. I was hoping for new ways to think about wealth preservation, or a roadmap of things to think about when framing my own plan for passing down security, values, and knowledge. Unfortunately, there was a lot of empty content here, and a lot of missed opportunity to discuss what the book is advertised to be about. There was no discussion of: How to find your purpose. How to talk to your children/successors about your purpose, and to pass along your passion for it. How to merge your purpose with your successors' purpose. How to prepare your successors to receive the wealth so they will use it wisely. How to structure the transition of control to your successors, including whether to keep the group's wealth together or to split it into individual shares so they can execute their own dream, and if it's a group, whether to put one or all of them in charge of it. There's a whole lot of substance that could be discussed in those areas that I feel was just entirely skipped over.

There were two areas of the book that I highlighted and thought were good. One was that the author mentioned was that when his children were teenagers, he would pay them to read books and to summarize notes. That's a little snapshot into teaching the next generation that I think was good. More of that sort of biography would be really valuable. What other ways did you teach your kids about money? What sorts of things did they identify in the books that resonated with them, and did it align with your ideas or not, and how did you handle that discussion?

There was one other highlighted area, which was where he talked about learning to lead his children based on relationships instead of just rules. The rules are obviously necessary, but connecting them them on an emotional level, asking how they feel, is really important. This could have been expounded upon as well. What did you learn after connecting with your kids? Did it shape the way you saw transitioning to the next generation?

Those two snippets happened at 33% of the way into the book and 35% of the way in. Everything before and after was basically unremarkable.

Not at all what I expected to read about, and not worth my time to figure out when the author was going to get to his points.

Updated 30 March: Upon a further review of NetGalley's Reviewer guidelines, I could consider this book DNF. The author spent way too much of the early part of the book on his autobiography, and frankly we don't need to know how his mother's doctor talked to her about his foot issues for his audience to understand the spiritual, practical, or financial controversies of dynastic wealth. The book description:
"Align your wealth with your family’s collective purpose.
Create meaningful documents that go beyond legal jargon.
Navigate multigenerational wealth transfer with clarity and care.
Foster stewardship that prioritizes character and community.
Use the "Index of Purpose" framework to measure true wealth."
... did not match the contents. The author could have introduced these principles up front (summary or intro chapter) instead of making us wade through all of his backstory.

My readers want to learn how to reach financial independence and steward their dynastic wealth for more than three generations. This book did not make it straightforward or relatable.

I will not be leaving an Amazon (or any other social media) review of this book.

True to the title, this book is part memoir, part philosophy. Though it appears to begin as a way to build a template of a trust, the underlying document is largely left to the interpretation of the reader and their advisors. The book does meander occasionally, but not excessively, through allegory before jumping back to philosophy.

3 stars because I anticipated a more instructional tone and substance. Also, because there were so many instances where I thought “here it comes…a checklist, finally” only to be returned to spirit, soul, and philosophy.

Read it before you engage an advisor. But don’t if you want to embark on the journey on your own and need a guide.

It is a great concept to leave something good for perpetuity. This book takes the concept of generational wealth further to leaving something valuable in the hands of an able steward instead of someone winnign something only by heiship. Reminds me of the stories where generations old business are transferred to someone who is believes in it as much, even if they are not from the same family.