It's changing the whole industry

Seems as the idea that your legacy is more than your money is taking off.

From the Chicago Tribune, Sharing Core Values Best Family Legacy

Estate planners are increasingly tapping emotions, and downplaying dollars, to start us thinking about leaving a legacy to our heirs.

Last month, the Financial Planning Association held an Internet seminar aimed at helping planners take their clients beyond boilerplate wills and trust documents.

In fact, financial planners are producing a movie to tell clients that there's more to life than money.

They're even bankrolling a movie -- and marketing a book -- to promote what the industry likes to call a cultural shift. The theme of the movie? Money is the least important thing you'll leave your heirs.
''It is ironic,'' said Rick Eldridge, producer of The Ultimate Gift, a $10 million independent film financed by a group of planners and promoted by the industry's biggest trade group. ``But it makes some sense if you think about it.''
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''Historically, planners have focused on the value of what their clients own,'' said Scott Fithian, a ''life planner'' with Legacy Cos. in Hingham, Mass. ``What they are beginning to recognize is that it's more important to focus on what their clients value. It's changing the whole industry.''

The Latest from Pew's Internet and American Life

25 million of us, have used the Internet to sell something says the latest report from the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

In addition, internet traffic data show that visits to classified ad web sites has grown 80% in the past year.
Almost everything imaginable is currently for sale or has been for sale by individuals on various auction or classified ad sites. Tangible items like pink plastic Christmas trees, collectible coins, wedding dresses, automobiles, books, or CDs share web space with a myriad of intangibles including virtual weaponry and characters from online games (sold for real money) and services including everything from finding a French tutor, a personal trainer or someone to clean your aquarium.
Demographically, online sellers have an “early adopter” profile and they are relatively intense users of the internet.

Another report says using search engines is edging out email as the primary internet application. In September, on a typical day, 58 million Americans searched for something online, an increase of 55% over June 2004 when only 38 million a day searched.

And finally, 13 million Americans made donations online after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and 7 million used the Internet to set up their own hurricane relief efforts.

Click for Design

Design blogs are "equal parts bulletin board, cocktail party, garage sale and aesthetic manifesto."

They're a great interactive resource," says interior designer Ky Ta of the District. By posting questions on blog comment boards, he says, "you can basically leverage the entire design community to solve problems. They're also a great buying guide for people who don't necessarily know where to go to look for certain things. So they're really providing a free service, and anyone with an Internet connection can use it."

Read more about people obsessed with design and the wonderful, terrible development of design blogs in The Washington Post, Blog Wild.