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There is the age old stigma that wealth can bring or buy happiness. But, we hear it time and time again: money doesn’t buy happiness. The lack thereof may create unhappiness, but the presence of wealth does not necessarily have the opposite effect. Wealth does not create happiness nor does it provide the meaning of life. It may provide opportunities, but that does not guarantee happiness or meaning. Senior Wealth Dynamics Coach Amy Zehnder looks at the prospects of turning wealth into happiness.

Taking time to tell family stories, and finding interesting ways to record them for subsequent generations, can serve as a foundation for family members to bond and identify with each other. Stories can engender in family members an appreciation for their own unique “differentness” of identity from those outside of the family. This shared sense of unique family history can aid the family in their quest to break the curse of the third generation.

When it comes to reaching your family’s financial objectives and perpetuating its wealth, integrated family wealth planning is critical. A family governance system can significantly facilitate that process. This evergreen guide offers best practices and key elements of an effective family governance system, one that can be instrumental and flexible enough in equipping your family to navigate the challenges associated with family, business, financial, and legacy continuity.

Understanding what drives behaviors is a starting point for establishing acceptable family norms as well as addressing the unacceptable. It also may provide insight that can help reduce conflict, establish better communication patterns, and increase levels of trust among family members.

Families that successfully manage generational planning actively foster communication and trust within the family, identify shared values that define the family, take time to establish a thoughtful family governance system and give younger members the opportunity to have an impact through active participation in family affairs.

In a series of articles, the author has written about problems of trust and distrust in family enterprises. In the third in the series, he discusses a fictionalized case of an owner who resists forming, or even learning about, professional family offices. The article analyzes ways advisors can persist (without being fired) in raising the issues a founder needs to address for the family's long-term health.

Suggestions for how to preserve a family legacy across generations include not letting shared assets become liabilities, recognizing that family businesses are businesses, communicating in the way that works best for family members, acknowledging family dynamics and choosing trustees carefully.

A paper from The Madison Group says the ability of family members to meet, discuss and make decisions about issues is a critical component of long-term harmony in the family. Discussion begins with the individual members learning the skills to "show up" in a positive way and is carried through in a process that can be trusted and honored.