Even when there's social distancing, family meetings are still important, maybe even more so to maintain family connectedness and sense of purpose. While connecting through technology can’t fully replace the experience of meeting in person as a family, you can make the experience more intimate. This report will help you organize and conduct a virtual family meeting. Just as successful in-person meetings require goal setting, agendas, and ground rules, virtual meetings benefit from similar planning.
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Educating children about money, wealth, and financial planning is a critical step in helping them build their futures. As a wealth creator and thoughtful investor, you want to be sure your children understand how to manage finances and make good, informed decisions when it comes to spending, saving, and investing. But talking to children about money and wealth can be tricky. A workbook with resource links and checklists is provided to help make the process easier for families.
In this exclusive chat with Mellody Hobson, the President and co-CEO of Ariel Investments, speaks candidly about the importance and value of diversity in finance—how being color brave can improve business and society at large. Mellody shares personal stories and lessons learned from her investment career, including the disconnect that is felt between the diversification of investment portfolios and the lack of it in the hiring process in the industry. She also discusses investment trends and the empowering gift she received at the start of her career.
Develop a Continuous Learning CommitmentSixty-two percent of first-generation family leaders expect a transition in four to six years, either in the business or family leadership. Are your future generations ready? Learn best practices and processes to educate them.
Open dialogue between parents and children and, specifically, the creation of a family contract can promote responsible use of digital devices. With the help of a discussion guide and a sample contract, families can learn to prepare a contract that works for them. The process of working together builds trust, incorporates multiple perspectives, and makes it more likely that younger family members will follow the terms of the agreement.
For many wealth creators, amassing wealth took a lot of work, but passing down the knowledge and tools to the next generation for successful wealth transition can be an even bigger challenge. Wealth creators may not know how to start or know the best approach. Through an infographic and video, learn the best ways to pass down the knowledge and tools to the next generation for a successful wealth transition.
Revised Feb 2020Originally Published in 2014 -- As the scope of a business-owning family’s activities expand and the family grows across generations, the organic shift from a business-centric family to a family-centric enterprise or “family enterprise” begins. The family is faced with the issue of how to preserve the family wealth and well-being beyond the first generation.
Family governance need not be an oxymoron. A conscious family governance system can help create an efficient and rewarding means of ensuring the family enterprise’s viability for generations to come. Therefore, any family enterprise that seeks to maintain and grow its wealth—financial, human, social, and intellectual—should consider creating a clear system of governance that is well-designed and flexible-but-durable.
Research tells us communication is the most essential ingredient for sustaining wealth across generations. But, cross-generational communication can be particularly challenging, especially within families of wealth. Each generation’s habits, beliefs, and ideals are influenced by very different experiences, traditions, and societal norms. So how do you bridge the divide? In a gathering of more than 80 women ranging in age from 21 to 91 at a weekend-long learning event, several insights and recommendations on solving the cross-generational communication emerged.
Successfully transitioning family assets from generation to generation is hard work. And for many families, talking about money or family wealth can be awkward and uncomfortable, or simply delayed, which hinders younger generations from absorbing the critical information and know-how that is necessary for a smooth transfer of wealth and responsibilities. Some families are reluctant to discuss wealth at all because they are afraid of ruining their children's ambition. However, there are ways to encourage open discussions while being respectful of that fear.