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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.

From 2008 to 2009, the Center for Creative Leadership surveyed 128 senior executives who participated in CCL's Leadership at the Peak program. The executives served at teh senior most levels of their organizations, with more than 15 years of management experience and resonsibility for at least 500 people. This survey focuses on pressing trends and challenges affecting their organizations, and the role of leadership in spanning vertical, horizontal, stakeholder, demographic, and geographic boundaries.

Coaching can be a transformational process, helping individuals overcome obstacles, solve problems, make significant changes and accomplish lofty goals. Conscious Connection provides an overview of coaching, discussing the work of a professional coach and offering tips to ensure selection of the right coach.

KPMG Australia explores six areas related to family business succession: preparation, leadership change, new directions, governance as a priority, performance measurement and pride in the family business. The report focuses on Australian families but offers suggestions and insights that can be useful to families anywhere.

Family business consultant Kenneth Kaye discusses some characteristics that facilitate trust among family members in two types of enterprises – family offices and family-owned businesses – as well as a conflict resolution intervention that capitalizes on humans' instinctive propensity to trust.

A paper from Memoir Shoppe examines ethical wills and the age-old tradition of passing on spiritual assets. Most commonly written as letters, ethical wills are a unique, everlasting forum through which the ultra-wealthy come to understand and accept that authentic wealth can come from perpetuation of values, hopes, convictions, lessons learned and heartfelt blessings.

Families need to learn how to talk about money openly and participate in saving, spending and giving together. The result, Silver Bridge Advisors says, will be an increase in the number of financially thoughtful children in the world, a greater ability for the next generation to use their wealth responsibly, and an increased likelihood that family values will endure for generations.

The differences between the belief systems and practices of stewards and inheritors within single Asian families and the confusion they create.

A business-owning family can create a secure foundation for effective multi-generational ownership and control by transferring shares of a family business in trust during the controlling owner's lifetime, and through careful drafting of trust provisions, choice of governing law, selection of a capable trustee and implementation of effective family governance processes, Withers Bergman says.

An excellent trust beneficiary addresses the fact of his trust's existence and its implications for his life at increasing levels of understanding, moving from assimilating fundamental information to successfully managing relationships to seeking personal well-being and fulfillment. Instead of being the focal point of the beneficiary's life, the trust assumes a supporting role as financial capital in service of his journey toward excellence.