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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 successful and thrive.

Governance is the critical framework for decision making and the command and control of the family office. There are several key pillars to the development of successful family office governance, one that will help establish a framework for a family seeking to thrive in its next chapter apart from its successful operating business.

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 be time to review your structure.

Whether knowledge is shared around the dinner table or in a boardroom, starting family member education early puts a family office in a strong position to strengthen the family’s legacy. While the education program would likely depend on family characteristics, there are three topics that should be part of the curriculum: basic financial literacy, security and privacy, and the lessons and legend on how the family built its wealth.

Whether you’ve worked with ultra-high-net-worth clients for years or are just starting to grow that business, you know that these families and individuals are typically very private and prefer to deal exclusively with trusted advisors. When considering the right independent insurance agents or brokers, there are six things to keep in mind when making your decision.

There is an evolution taking place in the world of succession that is aligning the overall purpose of the family business with the motivation and beliefs of NextGen leaders. This report—the first in a series of four on family business succession—explores the courage to choose the right successor at the right time and provides the six key considerations family business leaders proposed that influenced their decision. For more key insights from the series, check out the other three reports:

Emerging from the shadows is the increasing number of women in the workforce, and it marks one of the most significant changes in economies throughout the world in the last 40 years. This report—the second in a series of four on family business succession—takes an up-close look at the demographic shifts that are changing the role of women in family businesses and the unique competitive advantages they can deliver. For more key insights from the series, check out the other three reports:

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 create value for both the business and the family. If you missed the other three reports in the series, you will find them here:

Each family’s legacy is as unique as the family itself. It can be a bloodline, a name, heirlooms, a legal entity or family stories, myths, and artifacts. In this fourth and final report in the series on family business succession, key insights are shared on the important role that legacies play in uniting the core purpose of the business with the family’s abiding values. If you missed the other three reports in the series, you will find them here:

Selecting the right investment vehicle often receives less attention than the other more known investment principles such as the value of diversification. Broadly speaking, investors can access four types of investment vehicles—including separately managed accounts—to avert making a wrong decision that can saddle a family with unexpected taxes, increased costs, or limited flexibility.