Generation One, Two and Three
A legacy is a reflection of your life and values, says Jeffery Price, CPFA®, Managing Director and Wealth Management Advisor at Merrill Lynch. A legacy that is sustained through generations requires healthy values regarding money. “I have a client who has created a ‘legacy letter’ that talks about the history of how he started the business, how he sold it and his desire to make sure these resources impact the Kingdom. It's hard to pass that on to a generation.”
Jeff joined Merrill Lynch in 1995, only a few months after his marriage to his wife Cara. April of 2025 marks 30 years at Merrill Lynch. Working alongside Jeff are his closest confidants and mentees, Trenton Owens and Jeff’s son Connor.
Trent Owens, fellow CPFA®, Senior Vice President and Senior Financial Advisor has been working alongside Jeff for close to 15 years. “I call him my business son,” Jeff explains, “He’s someone I can trust. We've done a lot of life together.” Connor Price was raised in the business, interned with Merrill Lynch through the years and, after experience both abroad and in D.C., officially joined Merrill Lynch in 2021 as a Financial Advisor.
“I think about legacy and those that are coming behind me. How am I leaving a reflection of my life on the team I've built so it has a lasting impact? I'm trying to chart a course that allows them to obtain a level that I could never hope or dream of.” Jeff's legacy is deeply connected with his mentorship and discipleship of Trent and Connor in not only the business but in their faith, “The legacy that I'm trying to lead them into–as I mentor and disciple them– is mighty men of God.”
A New Lens
Though Jeff mentors Trent and Connor, their young eyes bring vitality to the business. “You do something for 35 years,” Jeff says, “it's easy to get blinders on. They see things that I can no longer see because I've done it for so long a certain way and had success.”
Between now and 2045, Jeff says, 84 trillion dollars will be passed down from the baby boomer generation in the U.S. that have built businesses and industries from scratch. Both as the holder of a legacy and the one advising on it, a relationship with the next generation is vital. Trent and Connor allow Jeff to see “through the lens of the second and third generation. They see things differently than their parents or their grandparents.”
Legacies are Life-Giving
“What's your first memory of money?” Jeff often asks his clients. The steps to building a legacy begin with establishing the lens through which we see life. Jeff’s first memory, he shares, is two cases of chicken noodle soup.
As a seven-year-old who knew nothing of money or the recession taking place, young Jeff Price watched as his struggling mother worked two part-time jobs and his desperate father flipped burgers after losing his job. A local church gifted two cases of canned soup to Jeff’s family. The generosity of this moment, he says, shaped his own legacy of wanting to pass down a relationship with money based on blessing others. “Money can be life-giving or life-destructive,” Jeff explains, it can breathe life with generosity or it can add fuel to the fire of an addiction or a life that finds value in the balance sheet.
In the Crow’s Nest
These types of conversations are the ones that distinguish Jeff and his team at Merrill Lynch. “I use the analogy that we're on a ship and the client is the captain,” Jeff explains, “My job is to be in the crow's nest to say, ‘Here's where you want to go and how to get there in a healthy way.’ Some advisors in our industry don't know how to do that. They really never get to the heart of the issue. And that's what we're trying to do.”
I think about legacy and those that are coming behind me. I'm trying to chart a course that allows them to obtain a level that I could never hope or dream of.