Looking Up: An Advisor’s Story of Transformative Values

For Hilgardt Lamprecht, arriving in America meant seeing an eruption of resources and wealth for the first time. Growing up in South Africa, Hilgardt remembers finding many uses for small screws or bottles he would pick up off of the street. Using the bottom half of a bottle as a filter and the top as a funnel was cheap entertainment for a young boy during the country’s economic depression.

The stark contrast of entering a country with plentiful resources meant quickly learning how to manage them well, but also understanding the value of finding purpose with accumulated wealth. Using the same resourcefulness of the soda bottle, Hilgardt transfers this thinking to stewarding people’s resources according to God’s design for their life.

“When I look at stewardship, I look at stewardship of my life and my wealth. In order to maximize wealth, you have to figure out how to maximize life,” Hilgardt says.

A Focus on Life Before Wealth

Hilgardt set off on a journey to help families become grounded in the idea of leading their wealth with their life, and not leading their life with their wealth, where Hilgardt has watched people fail over and over and lose their estate.

“It is weird, but I love old, classic American hotels. It gives me a glimpse of what America was about 80, 90, or 100 years ago. I love reading about the old, wealthy families in the United States, and the biggest difference between those that have left a lasting Kingdom impact and those who have not is those patriarchs and matriarchs who have taken the time to formalize their mission, vision, values,” Hilgardt says.

Through his studies, Hilgardt came to understand the value in putting a stake in the ground and discovering what you stand for, and then with great grace, pride, and some humility- communicating those values with your kids and articulating the family identity.

“I think as a kid growing up, I was kind of looking for my father to do that. I think… we all were looking for our parents to give us a sense of identity, communicate that identity, and say the Smith family is like this, or the Jones family believes this,” Hilgardt says.

Shaping His Own Family

A turning point came for his family when he attended a family legacy workshop with Bill High and The Signatry.

“I had touched on the topic several times over the last ten years and never nailed it down. So, I thought that I would love to go and learn how to do this and get it done for my family,” Hilgardt said.

Attending the family legacy workshop catapulted him and his family into action. Hilgardt wanted to include his wife and three boys, and take time to shape his own family’s purpose, which he knew from his research would be very impactful on the future generations of his family in America.

“My sons thought they were in trouble because they must have screwed up somewhere,” Hilgardt said. “We hadn’t had a formal family meeting in a long time. We blocked three times over a month and half period where we intentionally worked through the program together. During Christmas we completed it, and I took what we wrote and decided to go put it on a plaque and create a family symbol. I wanted to put the stake in the ground and create these things.”

Developing Values in Others

The dream of helping others discover the purpose of their life and resources is also carried out in his financial services firm, which Hilgardt named LifeWealth Group. He believes that being the best advisor in God’s Kingdom means meeting people where they are. While many people desire to be good stewards and go to church on Sunday to learn to do so, the average giving in the evangelical church is not even remotely near ten percent. Hilgardt enters the space where the disconnect is between what the pastor and Bible are telling us, and what many people actually do. His family practice breaks down the growth of biblical life stewardship into simple steps.

“Here you are building tremendous wealth and then you get divorced and then half of it is gone, right? That is why we focus on the life-planning front in addition to the wealth,” Hilgardt points out.

Seeing a couple on the same page is like beautiful music for Hilgardt. He focuses on major aspects like marriage and life-transition periods with his clients, so they are the most prepared to match their life events with proper planning of their resources.

“I see when people sell their companies or when they retire, they really are lost in a phase or season of transition. And in that lost transition, it eats up time when they should be looking up and asking God what the coordinates are for the next adventure,” Hilgardt says.

If you are stuck looking down over your wealth and immersed in planning, then you aren’t looking up to God. A good advisor helps you finish looking down and helps you start looking up, and that is the philosophy that Hilgardt specializes in.

Connecting Deeper with Clients

For the clients who may not initially be open to faith-based planning, Hilgardt creates opportunities to show them glimpses into his life and why his faith is important to him. A few times a year he invites all of his clients to go on a volunteer day to a food bank that has a strong undertone of faith. He uses these opportunities to go shoulder to shoulder with clients, and engage with them, finding ways to open the door to faith conversation.

“You get to the place where you have the relational capital and people respect what you have to say and I just tell them, I feel secure about my life because of how Jesus loves me,” Hilgardt says. “My heart hurts for the people who have all the resources in the world, and it just wreaks havoc in their life. I am all about the preservation of wealth and estate planning through God’s image, and I think The Signatry is all over that. I am glad to have friends in this endeavor.”

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Hilgardt Lamprecht combines his entrepreneurial spirit and his commitment to excellence to help clients work toward their retirement dreams. His Christian faith and dedication to helping others are the cornerstones of his professional career and driving force behind his creation of The LifeWealth Group, a family financial services firm in Orlando, FL where he is CEO and lives with his wife and three sons.