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 opport...
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 ...
While it is true that having money can create great opportunities, it can make some people feel awkward and harbor deep feelings of regret and shame. Those feelings can dramatically influence wealth management decisions, affecting both the inheritors and wealth creators. When issues surrounding wealth as a burden go unrecognized, they can be magnif...
Communication is found to be the most important factor for cohesion in families and sustainability of family wealth. As one of the key tenets to happy, healthy, and thriving families, it is essential for family members to dedicate the effort necessary to become better communicators. Practicing effective communications—including being open and ...
Case management, a new concept in the addiction and behavioral health field, can significantly increase the likelihood of sustained recovery for individuals who suffer from chronic diseases such as alcoholism, drug dependence, depression and other addictive and behavioral disorders.
Supportive and knowledgeable family members can be very influential in supporting a loved one’s recovery from addiction. With the help of a trusted addiction counselor, families can become “positive enablers” by developing a long-term recovery management plan, looking for effective treatment and identifying sources of leverage for...
Creating an authentic life is a challenge in and of itself. Add family to the mix and this challenge becomes more complex and difficult. Whether you are the parent or the adult child in your family, you play a role in creating an environment of authenticity. Creating such an environment early is critical to achieving open and honest communication l...
For family members working in the business, the area of compensation overlaps with contentious considerations of fairness, equality, performance-management and long term engagement. This artcle itemises how families have approached this issue, and advocates some pathways to avoid disharmony.
When families feud, nobody wins. What causes reasonable human beings to defy the advice of trusted advisors and lose sight of the costs of family fighting, not only in terms of money but vital family relationships and peace of mind?
Few problems are as vexing and seemingly impossible to resolve for families, advisors and trustees as the active alcoholic or addict, particularly those who continue to use after treatment. While low recovery rates for treatment and subsequent relapse may be understandable in the aggregate, on the individual level the experience is frustrating and ...
One of the things we’ve learned is that a family contract can be a valuable tool to help families build trust and avoid conflicts. We’ve also found that for a contract to work well, everyone who signs the contract should have a say in how the contract is written. That doesn’t mean you will get everything you want and, as you proba...
A family office and advisor team working in the best interest of the family first and foremost requires (1) working with and depending upon multidisciplinary colleagues, (2) collaborative management of the practice areas with appreciation for pragmatic give-and-take resulting in a better overall plan, (3) recognizing that team members are not ...
This document outlines 12 of the most common questions posed by couples prior to engaging in a prenuptial agreement.
It is easy to understand why the American underclass has almost insurmountable obstacles to living the American Dream. What may not be so obvious is how difficult it may be for the wealth inheritor to live the American Dream.
Some believe you must sacrifice family relationships for success in a family business. But in fact, focus on the family doesn’t drain business success — it enhances it. That is one key finding of a new global family business survey conducted by EY with research partner Kennesaw State University’s Cox Family Ent...