Definition
Specific Bequest
A named item or asset left to a specific person in a will. David recommends handling these in a separate non-binding rider so emotionally loaded decisions don't block completion of the will itself.
From the episode “Fix the Thing 70% of Americans Are Ignoring”Hear it on the podcast1 episode
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Related terms in Finance & Markets
Single-Stock Concentration RiskThe financial risk arising from holding a disproportionate percentage of net worth in a single company's equity. In public markets, financial advisors universally recommend diversification to avoid this risk. In private markets, founders, early employees, and early investors are structurally forced into extreme single-stock concentration - their equity cannot be easily sold, the company's prospects are opaque, and the holding period can extend a decade or more. Greg Brogger's data makes the risk concrete: only 38% of US Series C companies from 2010-2015 had produced shareholder value a decade later. An employee with 90% of their net worth in a single Series C company faces a 62% chance that the wealth never materializes. The typical Collective recommendation is to exchange 15-20% of shares to create a floor, preserving most upside while eliminating the all-or-nothing exposure.Smart contractSelf-executing code on a blockchain that enforces rules automatically when conditions are met — the compliance layer Fairmint embeds into equity.Social CapitalismThe investment philosophy dominant among Millennials and Gen Z: evaluating opportunities by social impact and mission alignment before financial returns. Inverts the traditional transactional investor sequence (returns first, mission secondary) — the younger generation asks 'what is the impact?' and 'why does this exist?' before asking 'what is the yield?' CJ Follini frames this as the defining capital allocation behavior of the generations inheriting the Great Wealth Transfer. His pragmatic corollary: companies that structure around mission-plus-profit (modeled on AARP, not OpenAI's muddled nonprofit-to-capped-profit conversion) will attract the most capital from the next generation of investors.SPAC (Special Purpose Acquisition Company)A blank-check shell company created specifically to take a private company public by merging with it after the SPAC raises funds on a public exchange — bypassing the traditional IPO process. Latch went public via SPAC in 2021 during the peak of the SPAC boom, at a $1.5B valuation. Chamath Palihapitiya led the deal. SPACs offer speed and certainty versus IPOs but typically result in significant post-merger dilution.StipulationA written agreement between parties, often filed with a court, that records how a dispute was settled.Stop Rogue AI ActA 2026 bipartisan House bill directing NIST to set security standards for deploying AI agents.SUI (State Unemployment Insurance)A state-administered tax that recalculates annually based on claims, often surprising employers with retroactive bills.Tariff engineeringLegally adjusting a product's design, classification, or origin to reduce tariff exposure.