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Leadership succession and governance are important issues for every financial family. However, these issues are especially complex for business-owning families. To explore succession from an expert perspective, FOX spoke with Kelin Gersick, co-founder and senior partner of Lansberg, Gersick & Associates, a consulting and research firm specializing in family enterprise and philanthropy.

For most people, being part of a family means learning the family culture and passing the family’s values through the generations. If philanthropy is part of a family’s ethos and identity, most parents agree that there are many ways to incorporate the concept as well as the practice of giving in day-to-day life.

Trust is not only crucial to success among the owners of substantial wealth but also the sine qua non for successful teamwork among professionals who work with them. There can be dangers, however, in too much trust and too little healthy confrontation, just as there are in mistrust and chronic conflict.

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 trustees carries the risk that it depends on an unbroken line of succession from one 'wise' (competent, diligent) trustee to the next, with little or no transition time or cushion to adjust for unexpected events.

Why, when and how legal and financial advisors counsel their clients around their charitable giving options has important implications for the donor, for the gift planner, for charitable organizations and for society. The author makes a series of recommendations on how the advisor-client relationship can best be structured in the interests of both.

A discussion of pre-nuptial, post-nuptial or cohabitation agreements.

A checklist of things to avoid when taking out life insurance.

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.

How does a family office serving the third and fourth generations differ from one that is serving generations seven and eight? How do the servicing needs change as the family expands and changes? What happens when the cost of services delivered by the office exceeds the perceived value? How can costs be controlled? What back office systems are required?

In addition to guiding the family office, helping owners to think about issues that impact their family's goals is an important part of the family office CEO's role. While important to all financial families, these principles and practices become more critical as families grow in size and complexity and should be revisited regularly.