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Family offices may take on a variety of roles in service to the family, so it is essential that there is a strategy that helps frame the office’s purpose and an overarching plan to help align and execute against diverse interests. The panel will cover three key areas during this session: 1) Share critical questions to ask and answer when designing ...

The number and scope of women-owned businesses have risen at an unprecedented rate. In an era of new opportunities, this paper profiles eight courageous and resilient women who share their personal stories and the lessons they learned building successful businesses. One theme that emerged from these women’s stories was the critical role of mentorsh...

Taking cues from entrepreneurs, families with great financial wealth would be well-served to create environments where their children can fail and in doing so, learn invaluable lessons about finance and resilience. While the older generations may set the tone by sharing their own stories about overcoming adversity, the rising generations will learn...

With the dramatic expansion of family wealth in the United States and around the world, family offices are a growing part of the global financial landscape. Depending on the family’s mission, service needs, professional skill set of individual family members, and their existing advisor network, a family office may be appropriate. While every family...

As high-net-worth investors discuss plans for charitable giving and investing with their financial advisors, it is absolutely crucial for them to be on the same page in terms of the outcomes desired, both financially and philanthropically. For this reason, advisors and their clients need a set vocabulary of terms going into the first meeting. Only ...

As startup companies in the cloud, internet, and technology industry grow, they must balance resources between innovating products and services and building their businesses. The BPM Business Ownership Transition sat down with the San Francisco Business Times to discuss the nuts and bolts of value creation for startups. Listen in for more about the...

How do family businesses keep their founders' entrepreneurial spirit alive and continue to grow from decade to decade and generation to generation? Learning from an in-depth survey of 2,439 family business leaders across the world, this report uncovers the secret to the regenerative superpower of family businesses, beginning with the founders' entr...

Across the world, philanthropy is undergoing a transformation that offers both exciting opportunities and complex challenges. With so much in flux, emerging donors and established funders are seeking new models not only for funding strategies and impact measures, but also for organizational design and management systems that will serve them well in...

This issue brief examines the kinds of decisions that family foundations often face and sets out practical, easy-to-apply guidelines for ensuring that the foundation’s decision-making methods vary appropriately, as conditions and circumstances change. It includes factors to consider when selecting a decision-making method, guidance on how to commun...

Just as government and businesses require sound governance to do their work well, so too do families—and their philanthropy. The Family Governance Pyramid provides a model and framework for philanthropic families that is even more relevant and necessary today than when it was first introduced nearly two decades ago. This article by the National Cen...

Choosing the right governance practices in a family business is a critical ingredient for its long-term sustainability. This report—the third in a series of four on family business succession—examines the many layers of family and business governance systems and mechanisms and the ways in which the evolving principles of good governance c...

Family offices, much like the families that need them, are works in progress. You can’t just set up a family office ownership structure and think it won’t need some type of attention in the future. A number of factors, including regulatory changes, could compel you to revisit your ownership structure to ensure it still makes sense. See why it may b...

Creating a family office and sustaining its success starts with a thorough assessment of your family’s priorities, objectives, and capabilities. Whether your family is considering forming a family office or evaluating one that already exists, there are ten questions that should be addressed to help put your family in the best position to be success...

Growing up in a family business environment often rubs off on the younger generations, with some making the decision to start their own business instead of joining the family enterprise. Toward that end, getting help while staying true to their own ideas requires balance. Here are four steps that will help launch their independent business ven...

Governance is the framework that helps you establish decision-making principles, policies, and practices. Understand the process and value of building a strong governance structure. This primer is the third in a series of seven about the Family Giving Lifecycle by the National Center for Family Philanthropy, comprising of seven inflection p...