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One key to helping develop greatness in the next generation is to encourage entrepreneurship. The formula for encouraging entrepreneurship will differ among families and may need to be adjusted to fit the needs of individual family members. It is important for families to recognize some of the unique issues they face and to think in advance of the steps they can take to address these challenges.

Family offices may have to come to grips with the fact that greater diversification may not be the answer to improving rates of return, says a new paper from Advocate Asset Management LLC. The most prudent actions may be those that preserve capital, waiting patiently for the underlying climate to change fundamentally to one more conducive to the growth of capital

A brief paper from Health Advocate Inc. provides an overview of health advocacy, explaining not only the concept but also how this new specialty service can help individuals deftly navigate the healthcare system in order to get the right services and to make sound medical decisions.

Creating an estate plan can be a complex process, but it ensures security for surviving family members, serves as a core element of long-term wealth strategy and contributes to the family's long-term stability. Neuberger Berman covers the essentials of creating an estate plan, including basic planning documents, legal issues and lifetime wealth transfers.

Despite difficult economic times, a new generation of wealthy, socially aware individuals is giving more to their favorite causes. A research report from Barclays describes these individuals as more global in outlook, more ambitious in trying to effect social change, more impatient in reaching charitable goals, more demanding of accountability by charities and more willing to take measured risks in giving.

Thanks to the considerable capital reserves of many private equity funds and the need of many companies to restructure and improve efficiency, private equity is alive and well. This report from Deutsche Bank examines the state of private equity and suggests this may be a good time to invest in this asset class.

In this paper, SVB Capital identifies and discusses five areas of consideration that demand increased due diligence when considering a general partner: team dynamics, investment strategy, cash flow management, performance attribution and alignment of interests.

As the management and control of a family office passes to a younger generation, it is common for new leadership to reassess many of the organization's strategic elements against a new measurement criteria, a necessary process that can lead to difficult and transformational decisions. For many, the single-family offices that remain will bear little resemblance to the operations that their parents established.

Family offices develop complex and highly individual business models that can make fraud prevention programs difficult to implement. At the same time, family offices are exposed to various types of risk that can hamper their ability to protect family assets. In these two papers, Rothstein Kass explains practical methods for preventing fraud and minimizing the family office's exposure to risk.

Tough financial times demand strong risk management systems while limiting the resources available for those systems. In their sixth annual risk management survey, Marsh and the Risk and Insurance Management Society examine strategic risk management in practice and offer recommendations for building strong risk management programs.