Inheritance & Wealth From a Deeper Perspective

Matina Agio is an inheritance counsellor who inspires a deeper perspective on inheritance - beyond the legal and financial in Athens Greece but works globally. Her signature method, THE INHERITANCE MUSE METHOD™, is a therapy-based approach addressing the emotional aspects and practical challenges of managing one's family heirlooms, collections, property & other inherited possessions.

The method also helps process parts of family story, co-inheritor relationships and passed down legacy burdens.

Her work brings clarity in decision-making, meaningful optimization of ownership and the development of a values-based approach to wealth & legacy planning.  The process encourages personal growth, healing, and a deeper sense of identity on the inheritance journey.

Matina’s experience of living and working globally, allows her to address the needs and varying backgrounds of her clients. Her clients include collectors, historic homeowners, and family office members around the world. 

Additional Information at: https://www.matinaagio.com

Kirby
This conference will now be recorded.

Kirby
Welcome to the Tamarin Learning Podcast.

Kirby
My name is Doctor Kirby Rosplock and today we have a very special guest.

Kirby
Her name is Matina Agio, she is the inheritance muse and today we're going to talk a lot about the power and emotions and the relationship of wealth and self.

Kirby
And so I'm really excited because Matina is with us all the way from Athens, Greece, although her practice and work with families, individuals, and clients, is actually globally.

Kirby
So today, we're going to delve into this complicated relationship and unpack more about the inheritor experience of what happens when we're transitioning homes, and estates and precious heirlooms jewelry to yachts several things that happen when one person that granter is passing on to an inheritor.

Kirby
So welcome, Matina.

Kirby
We're so happy to have you here today.

Matina
Thank you, Kirby.

Matina
Thank you.

Matina
For inviting me.

Matina
I'm really excited to be part of Tamarind’s podcast series.

Kirby
I just have to ask you, how did you get to where you are today?

Kirby
I mean, what inspired you to become the inheritance muse, and in your words, what does that really mean?

Matina
Well, I always liked things as our life, as something that is guiding us to our purpose.

Matina
And that all of the different parts of them, sometimes they don't really match, they sort of come together.

Matina
And I think the inheritance muse started when my parents died about 60 days apart, which was rather shocking for me, one of them was totally unexpected death, and suddenly I found myself immersed in an inheritance journey.

Matina
And this inheritance journey taught me a lot and it also taught me that there is, let's just say a lack of focus on what is actually happening and in the inheritance journeys.

Matina
And what it actually touches would it affect, because, you know, inheritance is a catalyst.

Matina
So in my case, I inherited a historic home in Athens.

Matina
I inherited a collection.

Matina
My mother was an avid collector of fine art and antiquities, and you know, different Greek related art object.

Matina
And I had to suddenly decide what is going to happen with all this.

Matina
And, so, we ended up opening the house to the public.

Matina
I curated the collection.

Matina
I was like in a way, just following the cues.

Matina
And also, at some point, I realized that I'm, you know, I'm also in a grieving period.

Matina
And I also realized that opening the house or the public meant that I would have to also tell the public what this family was about and then suddenly the life, the family's story.

Matina
You know, I was overwhelmed with that aspect of sharing the family's story with others.

Matina
And I realize that, on one hand I know the family story, but on the other hand, I don't.

Matina
And I'm also part of that, and suddenly I was overwhelmed.

Matina
I have to say, not so much with me, but with gratefulness. I was overwhelmed with gratefulness.

Matina
And I realized that I am a custodian of what my family has given me.

Matina
And I really wanted to transfer this value to my, to my children and I want to really understand what is there.

Matina
So I think that if we look at inheritance from the aspect of Financial and Legal only, then we're missing a very large part of what inheritance is.

Matina
So I would say that inheritance and my small experience is separated into two categories.

Matina
One is the tangibles, So we're always dealing with the tangibles, what to do with these.

Matina
And then we're dealing with the intangibles.

Matina
I would say are much more valuable and much more interesting and much less vulnerable than the tangibles. For example, beliefs, ideas of the world, ways of doing things, no, even trauma.

Matina
That is transferred, you know, through families.

Matina
This can also be a gem and disguise, how you transfer these things.

Matina
So all of this was something that I processed, and I understood that I can help others through this.

Matina
And just to put the cherry on the top, one night, I had a dream.

Matina
And the Goddess Hestia, came to me, she's the goddess of the home and hearth in ancient Greek mythology.

Matina
She's actually a subtle God, she's actually part of the main gods.

Matina
But we don't really talk about her too much.

Matina
And she said to me that she was holding a chest with the my ancestors' sort of embedded around this gold chest.

Matina
And she said to me, she handed me the chest, and she said, Martina, you have managed to open your chest.

Matina
Now, it is time to help others open others.

Matina
And I realize what that meant, I just understood when I woke up.

Matina
I knew what that meant and that was mainly the birth of the inheritance muse.

Kirby
I just got goosebumps in hearing that.

Kirby
And I have to say, sometimes our professions choose us not that we necessarily choose what we think we're going to do.

Kirby
And, I mean, obviously, you had such an impacted experience personally, right?

Kirby
Witnessing, grieving, mourning, and also embracing the gifts that you were that you received.

Kirby
And it's just, I'm sure with the collectibles and the array of paintings and objects and pottery.

Kirby
And everything that you must have also really felt like there is so many stories connected to each of those things that perhaps, you didn't even know, right, that you were sort of filling in a picture that we're stories of your parents’ lives.

Kirby
And we found this when we met with so and so, and this part of the world, or so, I mean, that is, that is a huge component that oftentimes gets missed, I think, in the transfer, right?

Kirby
We think about the, the court log over here is the inventory of assets, right?

Kirby
But then, I love what you're talking about, just how there's this incredible, powerful story, right on the emotional side of these objects.

Kirby
These things that are coming your way that trigger, probably a lot of feelings, emotions, and concerns, or new fears that maybe many inheritors just don't.

Kirby
They don't know what to do as tell us a little bit more how you help unpack, right, that component of inheritance?

Matina
Well, it's a large package and it's a process.

Matina
It takes many years, but I would say, Kirby I came from a dysfunctional family.

Matina
You know, my parents, where I always say the Clash of the Titans, they were just very strong.

Matina
And processing.

Matina
This is part of it.

Matina
Because what you want is you want to create a narrative that's good for your children and good for you.

Matina
And there are things that you have to curate in that story.

Matina
The emotions, everything that's, that's one part of it.

Matina
The other part of it is that a lot of this inheritance is given to us without us understanding, like we, let's say, you know, we accept things from our parents as a giver, and many of us are very unthankful inheritors, you know, because inheritance is a gift, and as I said, it's not just the tangible.

Matina
It's the intangible too.

Matina
So, if we can get to that point of gratitude, which is, which is a journey. I mean, I believe it's a journey because that way we can really open that box of inheritance and it can really, really, really enrich our lives.

Matina
You Know. So, how, do I help people process that emotional side of inheritance?

Matina
I think the first thing is that we become sensitive that everything all the unfolding events of an inheritance, and, you know, our wealth management after that is an unfolding process, and we experienced that through feelings and emotions.

Matina
It's not just a dry thing.

Matina
Gustave Flaubert said, there is no truth, there is only perception.

Matina
And so inheritance is a perception.

Matina
Our perception of it.

Matina
Our sister or brother could be perceiving it differently.

Matina
So we are processing these things, and usually we are talking about these things with our lawyers, or maybe our psychologists, you know, sometimes we need to process some feelings. So work is to be able to understand how we are experiencing our inheritance journey.

Matina
How we are processing these emotions, and how deep we're looking into that to understand how that all, you know unravels for us.

Matina
And then how we manage to transfer value from one generation to the other.

Matina
And we ourselves can block this value by not processing things in the right way.

Matina
So emotional processing through the inheritance is a very important part of experiencing our wealth and what wealth is there.

Kirby
I like that.

Kirby
You talk about that, it's really perception and how it might be very different for different family members, tell us more about how you unpack this, especially when it's, it's a larger group.

Kirby
I mean, maybe it's not just one individual inheritor, maybe it's, you know, dozens or there might be multiple generations who are, you know, experiencing this transition, not just one generation, how do you bring community?

Kirby
Do you bring conversation?

Kirby
What does that look like?

Matina
So, my...

Matina
I work on individuals, with individuals, because I think that we can really open up and talk in a very deep way.

Matina
So, I think that, you know, it affects many things, and given that opportunity to speak. For example, you asked about how people perceive things.

Matina
There is the father dies passes away, and leaves a house to his two daughters, OK?

Matina
One of them wants to sell the House, and the other one doesn’t.

Matina
And they both agreed that they're going to sell the house, because that was what they agreed.

Matina
And then, at the lawyer's office, one of the daughters declares that she doesn't actually want to sell to the conversation, is very clear.

Matina
She's really, really doesn't want to go ahead.

Matina
And if we have a perception of a home, it's a holiday home where these two siblings are experiencing it differently, and they have different objectives concerning it.

Matina
So, the one of them would like to, you know, release the house, and the other one is very tied in because her experience of that family life is very important to her, her memories of the home, what she wants to give her children.

Matina
Because the other one doesn't have children, Let's say, and, you know, she wants to continue that as a second-generation experience.

Matina
And this is very meaningful and valuable to her. But that will not come out of that conversation Because she, she was not, you know, she's not given a chance to talk about it, because the other sister will come upon that and say, you know, but we agreed, and then the conversation goes in a totally different direction, and it might even end up.

Matina
And even the woman herself, the one that wants to keep the house may not have really, really understood why.

Matina
Because once we understand why, we can either help her through it in order to deal with the sale.

Matina
Or we can help the other one through it in order to be patient, so that the house is not sold immediately.

Matina
So there are many ways this story can go.

Matina
But the objective is that these two sisters don't end up fighting.

Matina
But they end up supporting each other in this process, that they grow through it.

Matina
One may be through patience.

Matina
And of course, I have to say that when we're talking about sibling relationships, we're almost also talking about past patterns and agendas.

Matina
So, these are also coming into the picture.

Matina
You know?

Matina
So.

Kirby
Yeah.

Matina
Yeah.

Kirby
It sounds like sometimes in your experience, these transitions, certainly that's been my experience, many times these transitions of wealth or objects, or whatever it is that's passing from one to the next can be a triggering point, right?

Kirby
It can surface emotions that you didn't know are sort of latent and below the surface of your life and all of a sudden, you know, sometimes we clench our fists and want to hold tight to keep the status quo.

Kirby
Others can't wait to break free.

Kirby
Right?

Kirby
This is a chance to find independence, find release.

Kirby
And for others, it's, you know, can send them into very dark places.

Kirby
I mean, I've seen families and individuals feel burdened by, not, there's not the sense of joy.

Kirby
It's sort of like, this is all that's left, is, are these last artifacts, right?

Kirby
Of that person, of that relationship.

Kirby
So I'm sure a lot of your work also is helping co-create and helping figure out “what's the future”?

Kirby
Now, as the Inheritance Muse, how are you inspiring them to sort of grieve or go through this loss process, or, you know, experience the joy of designing what’s next?

Matina
Well, it's about.

Matina
I call it the taking one from the chagrin of the inheritance to the joys and abundance of inheritance.

Matina
It's a shift, you know?

Matina
It's a shift.

Matina
I think that we, at the end of the day, our goal is to transfer value, that we experience value ourselves with what is given, and that we then can give this value further, that we don't want to lose the value we don't want to depreciate our property.

Matina
We don't want to end up in court.

Matina
We want to really accept this as a beautiful gift and which we open and we can use, and it enriches our life, you know?

Matina
And at the same time, we are custodians of this gift because we need to transfer that wealth to the next generation in some way.

Matina
You know?

Kirby
That's beautiful.

Kirby
I love the way you sort of frame that and share that with us.

Kirby
If there were a few tips, or a few closing ideas or thoughts, you wanted to re-iterate or bring to the surface now, what is it that you think would most help the people listening or watching today?

Matina
Oh, well, I wanted to just define that I have two sorts of clients, and they have different needs.

Matina
So I'll just throw out with the baby boomers, let's say, who are, let's say, in their sixties and so on.

Matina
Because they have different needs.

Matina
When they come to me, they're rounding up their life.

Matina
They are concerned about their legacy.

Matina
They want to know what effect their life has on the life of others.

Matina
They're in a way, they're in, there in a life closure, right.

Matina
And there's another, there are a lot of emotions there, and sometimes there might even be guilt.

Matina
I worry, there are a lot of emotions that they're experiencing.

Matina
A vision for life, and there are also existential issues that come up.

Matina
And so when they are separating their property, these things sort of seep in, so I would say to the, to the Baby boomers, that, once they understand that they are moving towards the end of life to the end phase of life, how long that may be.

Matina
And once they can grasp that and understand how they can interpret their life in a way, they can narrate their life in a way that has meaning to them, then this narration then moves forward to the next generation.

Matina
Ok, so, if they're very much worried about how their children are going to take on their Property, and their businesses, and so on, we can process that so we can release it.

Matina
And, you know, of course, that, you know, people transfer beliefs and ideas to others.

Matina
Especially our children.

Matina
So, I would say for the Baby Boomers, that, um, it's very important to see their life closure.

Matina
As there's an art to it.

Matina
There's a beauty to it.

Matina
If they can take grasp of that, they can grasp that idea.

Matina
Then the life is not just going away, but it's a sort of like a life closure by design and it could be one of the most meaningful and powerful parts of their life if they're willing to look a little deeper into that.

Kirby
Mmm hmm.

Matina
And concerning the, most of the people that I work with, beneficiaries.

Matina
They're usually in their forties and the fifties and they have various things that they are dealing with, like for example, they have often overwhelm and concerned about the future of taking on certain things.

Matina
They have sibling relationships and close relationships they have to deal with.

Matina
Then they have the founder to process the family's story in a way that is meaningful and empowering to them.

Matina
And also, there are their own self needs, like, for example, how is this inheritance going to affect my life?

Matina
How am I going to take this on?

Matina
Do I have the freedom?

Matina
Do I have the freedom to say no to the family business and do something else?

Matina
Where's my freedom in this?

Matina
What is my relationship with what's coming to me?

Matina
Um, what is my life purpose?

Matina
All of these things that are, you know, in the, in the process of becoming and there's a lot there's another part, which I think is quite interesting is what we call the legacy burden.

Matina
It's those burdens that are transferred from one generation to the other, and we have to sort them out because if we don't, we give them over. They are beliefs.

Matina
Usually they're unconscious, and some people do carry legacy burdens that were set not by their parents, even by their grandparents.

Matina
So I would say that one of the most important things to all these people is, too, while the inheritance process is happening, to start touching base with your feelings and ask yourself with the process, how do I feel about this?

Matina
What is this triggering?

Matina
What does this bringing up, Where am I blocked?

Matina
And if you start asking the questions, you know, in a curious manner, not having the answers, then you start, then it becomes a growth process.

Matina
And so you end up with the property, of course, and the whatever wealth that you're receiving, but you also end up with a wealth of knowledge about yourself and about how you want to move forward.

Kirby
That's so powerful.

Kirby
And I'm so appreciative that you brought us back to how different the tips look for if you're the grantor or settler, versus the beneficiary passing on the wealth or receiving it.

Kirby
How that process can start at narrative process can start well before, right?

Kirby
The transfer happens and how getting their story, fine-tuned will really help shape the narration to the receiving parties and down the road, to help continue that

Kirby
What you also shared is legacy burden And when it's not, right, it's not neatly contained or it's conflicted or it has lots of loaded or explosive aspects to it.

Kirby
And I love, on the other side, what you were talking about with inheritors receiving and how important it is to process, right?

Kirby
To really be keenly aware and open to how certain conversations, certain subjects, certain people, certain things, right?

Kirby
All can contribute to the mishigas.

Kirby
Right? The emotional experience that you have as you're going through this process, but also, giving permission that it's OK, and that you need to work through this, just, like, grieving the loss of a loved one.

Kirby
That, oftentimes, know, the gift and receiving might come with lots of other feelings, positive, negative, And then it's really the work is what are you going to do with that cycle?

Kirby
Where do you go from here?

Kirby
And what really inspires you to, you know, either clean up the legacy burden, right, and clean up the, the prior story, so you're passing on if you're gonna continue to pass on wealth or other types of inheritance.

Kirby
I know in my family, we have a shared family property.

Kirby
And it goes back many, many, many decades.

Kirby
But it's a constant process to continue to refine, right, and to continue to get better about how we work together, at how we manage, how we celebrate, how we honor.

Kirby
And it's very important to recognize that even though that transfer happens once, or maybe… it also really doesn't happen just once It happens over a long period of time.

Matina
Over and.

Kirby
Over, and, so, yeah.

Matina
And.

Kirby
I think the better that, that the process happens passing the baton.

Kirby
It's like a relay race.

Kirby
A family can get better about wealth transfer, if that's going to be a perpetual legacy, right, where they might be passing on more than just assets, or one generation to the next.

Kirby
Um, Matina is, What else did we miss?

Kirby
Is there anything else that you think we should cover before we close today?

Matina
I think it's such a large subject, we must do it again.

Matina
But I want to just leave the audience with the feeling of wealth, and to start understanding the nuances of wealth, because we're very focused on the numbers.

Matina
And the, you know, the assets.

Matina
But you know, since we were born, we have, we are being driven all the time, not only to our families, to our culture, through, let's say, the ideals of our culture, through all the inventions of thousands of people before us.

Matina
We are great receivers.

Matina
Just the chair that we're sitting on has been invented by somebody.

Matina
We never know.

Matina
We don't know, we don't know who that is.

Matina
And it's evolved, the chair has evolved.

Matina
But in the end, we are receivers we are experiencing that abundance.

Matina
And when we look at our families, of course, we can be very critical, and we sometimes receive trauma.

Matina
There's dysfunction, there's all sorts of things, but it's not only what we receive, but what we understand of what we receive and what we're going to do with it.

Matina
So the ball is definitely in our court and I would say that we are very rich, and if we keep thinking of that idea, then we will discover the wealth, even in the crevices of what we receive.

Kirby
Beautifully stated, thank you Matina, I thank you so much for being here today on the Tamarind Learning Podcast.

Kirby
It's been a real treat to speak with you and to be inspired by you the inheritance muse, so thanks again.

Matina
Thank you Kirby and I'm also very inspired by Tamarind’s work.

Matina
It's an amazing work you're doing.

Kirby
We appreciate it.