Successful family meetings are an essential component of managing a family-owned business, especially for wealthy families. Such gatherings are not only about ensuring the smooth operation of the business, but also about facilitating family harmony and ensuring that relationships and the family’s legacy continue through generations. Learning from experience that includes failed family meetings, here are 11 tips for facilitating productive family meetings that foster unity and effectively grow wealth across generations.
Family Governance
Resource Search
Partner Webcast: Succession and Transition Planning: Actionable Strategies for Preserving Wealth and Enhancing Value
Publish Date
Join us as we consider conceptual, technical, and qualitative issues and how they can significantly impact wealth transfers at all stages of the succession and transition planning process. The session will provide proven insights, strategies, and actionable steps for attendees to consider when planning and executing transfers of wealth. Whether beginning a new venture or approaching an exit of a privately-held company, there are many ways to achieve your goals while preserving wealth and enhancing value.
With the varied viewpoints, personalities, and emotions of UHNW family members, finding consensus can be a difficult topic, yet it is imperative to reach goals and move ahead. Gain insight into the structure and practices required for consensus and consider real-life situations resolved using these techniques.
Family Case Study: The Tsotsorkov Family - Empowering Visionaries | 2023 FOX Family Forum
Publish Date
Join the Tsotsorkov family’s journey over the decades, from its entrepreneurial roots going back 250 years to its modern-day enterprise. Gen 2 family leader, Dimitar Tsotsorkov, shares the story of, and learnings from, the family’s recent efforts to capture and codify the unique values that have shaped the enterprise family and its ecosystem throughout the centuries.
This session with the Salgar Family will provide background on the transitions underway in their family and how they used the Family Charter / Constitution to reaffirm the family values, align their goals, and organize their governance process. As part of the move from the first generation to the leadership of Gen 2-3, the family outlined the key components to be included in a charter document, including governance functions and responsibilities and skillsets needed for each role.
The fundamental question – “Will the family live in the plan?” – that Jay Hughes, Mary Duke, and Stacy Allred are asking in their latest research and upcoming book offers a cautionary story for both families and their top advisors. Without the appropriate focus on the family’s qualitative capital, and most importantly, their human capital, the plans and structures families have been investing in to preserve and grow their financial capital will likely be rejected by the future generations who were not engaged or consulted when the plans were made.
Wealth Management is a Family Affair
Publish Date
In "How To Talk With Your Family About Wealth," we discussed the importance of the family conversation when it comes to planning a legacy—and how quickly wealth can be lost when these conversations don’t take place. Yet despite their importance, these discussions can still be difficult, especially if your family doesn’t regularly talk about money.
In moving past the “shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations” adage, advisors in the family wealth space are emphasizing the importance of the family’s qualitative capitals that go beyond serving only the financial capital goals. This shift has elevated the family client experience and expectations. It’s part of the Wealth 3.0 movement that brings with it a refocus on the different goals of various family types, the importance of qualitative capitals, the evolution of family governance, and the human capital of legacy families and the rising generation.
Examining The Family Office Governance Journey | 2023 FOX Family Office and Wealth Advisor Forum
Publish Date
Every family office is unique, and so are the governance structures needed to meet the family's objectives. This session will help attendees understand when a family office should implement more (or less) formal governance components - from committees to councils to bringing in outside directors alongside family members. Attendees will walk away with a solid understanding of the family office governance lifecycle, including indicators on when to add or remove governance elements.
The Need for Governance in Family-Owned Businesses
Publish Date
Family-owned businesses are an important part of the economy, and they face unique challenges due to the dynamics of family relationships. With family members involved in both ownership and management, decision-making processes can be complex and challenging, so it is crucial that family-owned businesses develop governance structures before a need for governance arises. With proper governance and best practices, family-owned businesses can thrive and achieve long-term and sustainable success.