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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 success...

Join host Damien Martin in his ongoing quest for insights and best practices for affluent families and their advisors as he sits down with guest Jeff Davidson to unpack the often mystifying and sometimes daunting world of the family office. Here’s what’s covered: Who is Jeff Davidson? @02:35 Developing a national family business succession pl...

Families often find it challenging to talk about long-term plans and wishes of their aging parents. But it’s never a good idea to wait until there’s a crisis to rally family members together on a plan that will address mom or dad’s needs and wishes regarding healthcare, living arrangements, and long-term financial care. Knowing how to get the conve...

Traditionally, wealth advisors use a succession planning framework that involves working with the founders to look downstream to the next generation for an effective “passing of the baton” strategy. In contrast, a multi-generational approach encourages each person within the family system to contemplate and share with others where they’ve come from...

Succession is not just about money or property. It means confronting family relationships and taking the time to make sure that the drivers for succession planning connect personal motivations, the purpose of wealth, and specific family issues. It requires an emotional commitment to a process that once started must run its course, including having ...

Research indicates that multigenerational involvement is the single most important factor in sustaining family wealth into the third generation and beyond. Furthermore, the families that most successfully integrate younger members into their family operations seem to share the same philosophies and core values. It’s a family enterprise mindset that...

With the dramatic expansion of family wealth in the United States and around the world, family offices are a growing part of the global financial landscape. Depending on the family’s mission, service needs, professional skill set of individual family members, and their existing advisor network, a family office may be appropriate. While every family...

Avoiding the issue of succession planning is much easier than starting a conversation about handing over the reins to other family members. But avoidance does not defer the inevitable, and it puts family harmony and wealth at risk. As patriarchs and matriarchs of wealth families confront the issue of succession planning, there are seven questions f...

At the start of a family enterprise journey, there is often a patriarch (or matriarch) who was both an entrepreneur and a leader who overcame uncertainty or adversity to create something very special with the potential to last for many generations. For the families seeking to sustain their legacies, there will come a time for the patriarchs to move...

A family office may generally be described as an organization that engages in substantial, active management, oversight, and monitoring of a family’s business, investment, and personal assets in a purposeful, prudent, and business-like manner. As seen from the well-run family offices, there are many positive outcomes when families make an intention...

Many successful family-owned businesses are managing embedded family offices within their existing operations to maximize the benefits and opportunities gained from the unique structure. But in time, the needs of both the business and the family shift for various reasons that include the family growing and earlier generations transitioning out of t...

Succession will happen—it’s a matter of when, not if—so families should approach it with strategic forethought, flexibility, and responsiveness to ensure a smooth, successful transition. Through three different scenarios that encompass most transitions, learn how the decision-making process succession varies in significant ways across those scenari...

Robust governance practices form the cornerstone of success for the family wealth enterprise, and ongoing succession planning is one element of a mature governance system. As family considers its future succession, it is vital to understand why a well-conceived plan is so important and what the critical elements of the plan entail. Here, we outline...

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 b...

At every stage, a Family Office needs the right team, governance, and processes in place to continue growing. With this Family Office Maturity Model that identifies the five different stages—embedded, early stage, developed, professionalized, and mature—you can assess areas for improvement and determine the right steps to progress. By understanding...