Catholic Founders #47 The Role of Generational Wealth in Charitable Giving | Johann Kurtz
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Welcome back to another great episode of Catholic Founders.
Today we have a special discussion with Johann Kurtz . He’s the creator of the Substack Becoming Noble and author of Leaving a Legacy: Inheritance, Charity, & Thousand-Year Families. A book I highly recommend you add to your library.
I recently read this, and it blew my mind. Since then, I’ve passed out 8 or so copies and convinced probably another dozen to buy it.
Why?
This book encapsulates several core things of what it means to be a steward in God’s creation. From charity, to raising your children to caring for your community, to loving your neighbor.
A key point of the book, and something we discuss in the podcast, is the role of owning businesses in passing on a legacy.
The business itself doesn’t have to be the only asset. In fact, it would be better to have many assets, but a business is a good means of building assets that are intentionally illiquid. Assets that require care and attention. These must be inculcated into your children so they understand their broader responsibility.
Rather than liquidating everything you own at your death, children ought to continue to steward and grow that wealth, so that it may benefit the family, the community, and, of course, the Church.
Please listen to this with an open heart to what type of legacy God may be calling you to build.
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Core Lesson:
God wants to use us as stewards of His creation. Lean into whatever that stewardship looks like for you.
Some Catholics I’ve come across have no intention of building a financial legacy to hand off to their children. They are worried it will ruin them. But that’s only true if you don’t teach them the right virtues.
You are called to be a steward of the world around you. That includes the things God has put into your care. And in some cases, what’s put in your care includes your skills to acquire more.
When we act in line with God’s will, we can act as the worker ants distributing God’s goodness to the world — yes, including through our assets.
God wants you to build a legacy. Not for yourself. But for Him. So He can use you and your progeny to carry out His will in the world.
God Bless & Happy Building!
~Silas Mähner
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Key Episode References:
* Get Johann’s Book: Leaving a Legacy, Inheritance, Charity and Thousand Year Families
* Rerum Novarum (Papal encyclical by Leo XIII)
* Allocution to the Roman Patriciate and Nobility (By Pope Pius XII)
* Good Money (Series by the New Polity Catholic think tank)
* Biblical Passages: 1 Timothy 5:8, Proverbs 13:22, Luke 18, 2 Corinthians 8, Acts 4.
Select Quotes:
* “What I think is to be avoided at all costs is […] is passing on a massively liquid inheritance. In other words, pure capital, stock shares, cash, because that really, that is you’re passing on a massive temptation to your children, like just liquid money. It becomes a problem.” — Johann
* “Anyone who does not provide for their relatives and especially for their own household has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” (Quoting 1 Timothy 5:8) — Johann
* “A good person leaves an inheritance for their children’s children, but a sinner’s wealth is stored up for the righteous.” (Quoting Proverbs 13:22) — Johann
* “The virtue of humility is not believing that you are more than you are and being very conscious of the talents you do have, where they came from... But what it is not is the suppression or the ignoring or the wasting of your God-given talents.” — Johann
* “If you participate with joy in the divine commandments, you can leave a legacy which lasts forever... the quintessential commandment in this regard is be fruitful and multiply.” — Johann
* “Dominion carries with it the burden of rule. In some sense, there is a place for wealthy people in society... but they should always understand that wealth as a gift that is to be properly stewarded for the creation of the good, the true, and the beautiful.” — Johann
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Key Moments: (outline)
* 0:00 - Johann Kurtz on Ecclesiastes and the vanity vs. reality of leaving a legacy.
* 4:04 - Book Summary: The tension between traditional charity and modern philanthropy.
* 7:41 - Why newly wealthy often give away assets, citing the Vanderbilts.
* 8:53 - The book’s target audience: wealthy individuals and their children.
* 10:56 - The “way of life” pitched: Wealth as duty, favoring illiquid assets and family businesses over liquid inheritance (cash/stocks).
* 16:17 - The role of business in legacy, quoting Papal encyclicals (Rerum Novarum) on community obligations.
* 21:33 - “Actualizing God’s will” through entrepreneurship and the complex Catholic view of wealth.
* 31:12 - Responding to Catholics against pursuing wealth, referencing the Parable of the Talent and humility.
* 36:44 - Question: Should one break away from a “rough” family to build a new intentional legacy?
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