Preserving family stories is as valuable a legacy as passing on material possessions. This white paper discusses the various media that families can use to preserve precious memories and other elements of their histories. In addition, the paper offers professional guidance for undertaking such a project.
Most parents strive to give their children a solid education. Yet among some wealthy families, one area of schooling could use a little more parental TLC. It won't lead to a diploma or show up on anyone's curriculum vitae. But without a solid understanding of their family's wealth, some members of the next generation may be ill-equipped for it.
Despite its challenges, the current economic environment offers opportunities that can benefit family-owned businesses. This article from the Beringer Group encourages family businesses to consider the possibilities that may exist in acquisitions, corporate restructurings, internal buyouts, succession planning and estate planning.
The differences between the belief systems and practices of stewards and inheritors within single Asian families and the confusion they create.
The current financial crisis has caused many individuals to re-evaluate the role that money plays in their lives and has given families the perfect incentive to have realistic conversations about money. Noting that family advisors and mental health professionals long have advocated "financial parenting," this paper offers guidance for raising finan...
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...
Trustees often are required to invest the assets of a trust or estate. In doing so, they may delegate power to an investment advisor or securities broker. If the advisor's or broker's investments result in losses, the trustees need to find and pursue any viable claim to recover the losses. Stein, Stein & Pinsky offers suggestion to help with this t...
A new paper from Butterfield Private Office outlines private trust companies and how ultra-wealthy individuals and families can use them to manage a wide variety of assets while retaining a large measure of control over the administration of those assets.
Too often, family disputes over power and money are settled publicly in the courts, creating rifts among family members that may linger for decades. This article from Withers Bergman emphasizes the importance of transparency among family members and recommends non-legal solutions, such as the formation of a family council, regular family meetings, ...
Family businesses are most at risk for financial troubles based on a lack of formal succession planning and preparation, and on family business owners' personal financial issues, according to MassMutual Financial Group's 2007 American Family Business Survey. The survey also found that family businesses are growing in jobs and revenues, and ...
An inherited fortune may come with strings attached as wealthy families make a college education or job experience a condition of inheritance. About 60 percent of families with more than $10 million in assets place stipulations like these, according to a report on attaining and retaining wealth from Barclays Wealth. The report also discusses the im...
Gifting may be the place to start in planning a long-term estate planning strategy, according to this paper from Wells Fargo. While gifting can be useful in transferring tax savings, it also can provide a real-time snapshot of the estate plan by allowing the giver to see how beneficiaries accept and respond to the gifts and then to change the estat...
This article highlights the fact that most wealthy U.S. families customarily choose individuals rather than trust companies to serve as trustee, even for complex trusts holding very substantial assets and even though a family who can afford it now has the option of creating its own trust. The article also argues that reliance on individual...
The article argues that special needs planning on behalf of a disabled child means assembling a team of professionals with complementary competences: estate planning attorney, a financial advisor, and an accountant, as well as the parents, siblings, social workers/case manager and, if feasible, the child in question. Personal, financial, and legal ...
This issue paper focuses on the principles, practices, and policies of family governance. It aims to help philanthropic families understand the theory and practice of effective family governance.