In this exclusive chat with Mellody Hobson, the President and co-CEO of Ariel Investments, speaks candidly about the importance and value of diversity in finance—how being color brave can improve business and society at large. Mellody shares personal stories and lessons learned from her investment career, including the disconnect that is felt between the diversification of investment portfolios and the lack of it in the hiring process in the industry. She also discusses investment trends and the empowering gift she received at the start of her career.
Family Learning
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As families and Family Offices look to increase future generations’ positive impact, high among their common goals, and common struggles, are delivering education and increasing engagement. Based on FOX’s thirty years of working with families, Family Offices, and Enterprise Families; conducting research; and engaging in consulting projects, FOX has found that the most engaged families implement six key best practices to prepare the future generations. Once these family learning practices are in place, a family will be more successful launching education and engagement initiatives.
2020 FOX Foresight
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FOX Foresight keeps you up to date on our latest thinking about matters affecting Enterprise Families. It gives you our forward look on what we're learning from our members and subject matter experts. Please share it broadly with your family, your office, and your advisors. 2020 FOX Foresight is presented in 7 chapters:
Open dialogue between parents and children and, specifically, the creation of a family contract can promote responsible use of digital devices. With the help of a discussion guide and a sample contract, families can learn to prepare a contract that works for them. The process of working together builds trust, incorporates multiple perspectives, and makes it more likely that younger family members will follow the terms of the agreement.
Are You Prepared? Children and Grandchildren Should Be Ready for Their Roles as Inheritors
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For many wealth creators, amassing wealth took a lot of work, but passing down the knowledge and tools to the next generation for successful wealth transition can be an even bigger challenge. Wealth creators may not know how to start or know the best approach. Through an infographic and video, learn the best ways to pass down the knowledge and tools to the next generation for a successful wealth transition.
Take the Long-Term View
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Revised Feb 2020Originally Published in 2014 -- As the scope of a business-owning family’s activities expand and the family grows across generations, the organic shift from a business-centric family to a family-centric enterprise or “family enterprise” begins. The family is faced with the issue of how to preserve the family wealth and well-being beyond the first generation.
Family Governance: Oxymoron or Opportunity?
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Family governance need not be an oxymoron. A conscious family governance system can help create an efficient and rewarding means of ensuring the family enterprise’s viability for generations to come. Therefore, any family enterprise that seeks to maintain and grow its wealth—financial, human, social, and intellectual—should consider creating a clear system of governance that is well-designed and flexible-but-durable.
Research tells us communication is the most essential ingredient for sustaining wealth across generations. But, cross-generational communication can be particularly challenging, especially within families of wealth. Each generation’s habits, beliefs, and ideals are influenced by very different experiences, traditions, and societal norms. So how do you bridge the divide? In a gathering of more than 80 women ranging in age from 21 to 91 at a weekend-long learning event, several insights and recommendations on solving the cross-generational communication emerged.
Successfully transitioning family assets from generation to generation is hard work. And for many families, talking about money or family wealth can be awkward and uncomfortable, or simply delayed, which hinders younger generations from absorbing the critical information and know-how that is necessary for a smooth transfer of wealth and responsibilities. Some families are reluctant to discuss wealth at all because they are afraid of ruining their children's ambition. However, there are ways to encourage open discussions while being respectful of that fear.
For families engaging in strategic planning, the proverbial questions remain the same… What does the rising generation need to know? How do we deliver that? What should we expect from them? Intentional families consider these questions for years. Others, due to unexpected life events, are rushed to get the rising gen members up to speed and ready to serve. This webinar covered the basic components of a family learning program, including what important topics should be addressed at what life stage milestones.