Nola Reporter

NEW ORLEANS — Mayor Cantrell, in partnership with the African American Mayors Association (AAMA), today announced free one-year subscriptions to MyLegacyItems.com. This platform provides residents with an opportunity to prepare and store their last will and testament in a safe location.    

“As I’ve said before, our people are our most treasured, valuable asset,” said Mayor LaToya Cantrell. “My administration will continue doing everything in our power to build partnerships that set the people of New Orleans up for success, including financial literacy and building generational wealth. This also extends to our local small businesses, especially women and minority owned businesses. The grant the City received from AAMA has been instrumental in lending our business community the necessary tools and skills they need to both work in and with the City.”     

"One of the main reasons many families continue to lose their generational wealth is because of a lack of a will being in place,” said AAMA Chief Executive Officer Phyllis Dickerson. “In order to continue to build generational wealth in our community, we have partnered with New Orleans and eight other AAMA mayor cities to assist them in providing an online will platform in order to help them secure their current family and business assets."   

Through the platform, residents will be able to: 

• Add people who will receive an inheritance 
• Declare cash gifts to people and charities 
• Distribute estate residue (remainder) 
• Appoint people to key roles (Executor, Financial Representative, Healthcare Representative) 
• Guardianship provisions (included if minor is declared) 
• Create a Document Vault (includes document sharing with select people) 
• Learn estate planning concepts 
• Write about key life-learnings and memories and share privately 
• Personalized notifications and webinars 
• "Resolution & Review" to minimize input errors

This opportunity is a part of AAMA’s Economic Mobility Leadership Institute (EMLI). Mayor Cantrell has been participating in the 2023 cohort alongside eight other mayors from across the country. As a part of EMLI, Mayor Cantrell was able utilize $30,000 in grant funding to further the Office of Supplier Diversity’s Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) Bootcamp.  

The Office of Supplier Diversity and the Office of Procurement/Bureau of Purchasing, in partnership with Propeller, a local small business accelerator, launched the DBE Bootcamp to prepare newly certified DBE firms to better respond to contracting opportunities with the City. The overall goal of the DBE Bootcamp is to increase the economic opportunities for local small, disadvantaged businesses. A grant from AAMA was instrumental in funding additional resources for the bootcamp, particularly financial wellness consulting services for participants.  

The inaugural bootcamp consists of the following:  

• A procurement fair that brought DBEs together with City departments, other agencies and technical assistance providers to discuss current and future contracting opportunities   
• In-class training with the Office of Procurement/Bureau of Purchasing to inform participants on “How to Do Business With the City,” which included hands-on training for registering in the City’s supplier portal BRASS 
• Financial wellness support to participants, coordinated through Propeller and in collaboration with other technical assistance providers 
• One on one participant meetings with City departments arranged by the Office of Supplier Diversity and the Office of Procurement/Bureau of Purchasing 
• The Bootcamp session will culminate with the matching of participants with a mentor for continued support

Mayor Cantrell strongly encourages residents to engage in the process by viewing a webinar on estate planning at the following link: 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/19jjiM5nJ5hk6zZ7gy6IUN8S2_kLHj24B/view    

Residents are then encouraged to visit MyLegacyItems.com to get the estate planning process started. The access code is “NewLA” and it allows for a free one-year subscription. 

Original source can be found here.