The key to overcoming the paradoxes is looking at a family not as the sum of its wealth, but as a collection of living, breathing individuals drawn together through their affinity for the family. It requires a willingness to fight the natural impulses that lead other families to return to their shirtsleeves.
Family meetings can serve to update and educate family members on business and investment issues, reinforce family ties, and resolve conflicts. They can also be a lot of fun. But figuring out how to get the family members to the event, how to keep their attention once they've arrived, and how to make it fun in the process is no easy feat.
It is now becoming more common for families to focus their overall estate planning strategy on communicating a family vision expressing the philosophical and moral imperatives of the wealth creators, rather than merely on minimizing taxes. The common structure for providing incentives to encourage or alter behavior is the trust.
Our advice to anyone hesitating to bring about an intergenerational family foundation because the time does not seem right or there are too many family issues to confront is — just get started. There is no better time than now to have the satisfaction of helping others and, at the same time, to give your family the opportunity to grow and to disco...
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.
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.
In addition to having an external mission, many family foundations create an internal one specifying how the foundation will function in family-building, education and the transfer of family values from one generation to the next. Foundation Source offers concrete examples of how some families are using their foundations to make a difference within...
Traditional wills involve what you want your loved ones to have. Ethical wills involve what you want your loved ones to know. This short article discusses how the ancient practice of crafting an ethical will is an essential piece of today’s multigenerational wealth planning.
For many philanthropic families, successfully engaging the "next generation" proves challenging. This can be especially true if the family supports a specific community or region in which the younger family members do not live. This paper looks at the benefit of allowing the next generation to pursue their interests in more global issues.
One of the potential benefi ts of wealth planning is the opportunity for families to have meaningful conversations about their hopes, dreams, legacy wishes, and more. These types of planning discussions can help to create family intimacy, and help build relationship capital for the future. In this white paper, Fidelity advisor Dr. Timothy G. Habber...
How much capital does your family have? Is there enough to secure a stable and happy future for you and your children, or even for your children’s children? When the topic is one of financial capital, these are likely familiar questions to anyone dealing with wealth transfer concerns. But what many families often fail to see is the opportunity to b...
Sudden wealth is not something that happens only to the young founders of a social network. It can happen to elderly couples who have spent their lives building a business. It can happen to a chief executive receiving multi-million dollar dividends or vested options, a middle class young man newly married into a family of wealth, a newly divorced w...
One of the greatest concerns among wealthy parents is that the family’s great fortune might inadvertently lead to misfortune for their children. Raising responsible children in affluence is a life-long task requiring patience and persistence. Like learning to read, financial literacy is a process that is best started in early childhood. Teachable m...
This case study looks at four family members aged 16-23 encouraged by their father to engage more deeply in the family's philanthopy. The report outlines the process the family members went through and lists seven key success factors.
The windfall of inherited wealth often comes with feelings of guilt and elation, isolation and confusion. No wonder; when the financial gain is due to the loss of a loved one’s life, it feels crass to be excited about the opportunities an inheritance affords. Learning to be comfortable with inherited wealth is a process, a process of moving through...