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Taking time to tell family stories, and finding interesting ways to record them for subsequent generations, can serve as a foundation for family members to bond and identify with each other. Stories can engender in family members an appreciation for their own unique “differentness” of identity from those outside of the family. This shared sense of ...

There is the age old stigma that wealth can bring or buy happiness. But, we hear it time and time again: money doesn’t buy happiness. The lack thereof may create unhappiness, but the presence of wealth does not necessarily have the opposite effect. Wealth does not create happiness nor does it provide the meaning of life. It may provide opport...

The windfall of inherited wealth often comes with feelings of guilt and elation, isolation and confusion. No wonder; when the financial gain is due to the loss of a loved one’s life, it feels crass to be excited about the opportunities an inheritance affords. Learning to be comfortable with inherited wealth is a process, a process of moving through...

Estate planners who help their clients become more strategic about philanthropy in their legacy planning strengthen relationships with clients and their heirs and significantly increase the likelihood that their clients’ charitable distributions will align with their interests and be more effective. Whether creating a new estate plan or revisiting ...

Understanding what drives behaviors is a starting point for establishing acceptable family norms as well as addressing the unacceptable. It also may provide insight that can help reduce conflict, establish better communication patterns, and increase levels of trust among family members.

A return to a “high” market warrants a full understanding of the nature of ownership (legal title) risks in the art industry and how art investment fund managers can mitigate these risks.

Our advice to anyone hesitating to bring about an intergenerational family foundation because the time does not seem right or there are too many family issues to confront is — just get started. There is no better time than now to have the satisfaction of helping others and, at the same time, to give your family the opportunity to grow and to disco...

It is now becoming more common for families to focus their overall estate planning strategy on communicating a family vision expressing the philosophical and moral imperatives of the wealth creators, rather than merely on minimizing taxes. The common structure for providing incentives to encourage or alter behavior is the trust.

Family meetings can serve to update and educate family members on business and investment issues, reinforce family ties, and resolve conflicts. They can also be a lot of fun. But figuring out how to get the family members to the event, how to keep their attention once they've arrived, and how to make it fun in the process is no easy feat.

The key to overcoming the paradoxes is looking at a family not as the sum of its wealth, but as a collection of living, breathing individuals drawn together through their affinity for the family. It requires a willingness to fight the natural impulses that lead other families to return to their shirtsleeves.

In addition to guiding the family office, helping owners to think about issues that impact their family's goals is an important part of the family office CEO's role. While important to all financial families, these principles and practices become more critical as families grow in size and complexity and should be revisited regularly.

Creating an educational experience that fosters peer exchange and involvement entails more work and risk than a simple lecture, but family members will leave the session with practical skills, deepened relationships and enjoyable memories.

The family enterprise provides a strategic framework for families to stay together and accomplish the shared goals of growing wealth and managing risks through the generations. Within the enterprise, the Private Trust Company (the PTC) provides a beneficial mechanism to support the enterprise and the family’s growth and development. In addition to ...

We’ll examine how to successfully navigate the challenges that arise with the aging and cognitive decline of a family member and/or board member from the perspective of the family office. Aging experts emphasize several strategies for identifying cognitive impairment and ensuring early detection, along with resources and approaches for handling the...

While each family office has its own unique makeup and course to success, there are many recurring themes over the years which, when aggregated, form something of a roadmap which can be used to help guide other families on their own unique journeys—be they new to wealth or several generations deep. Against that backdrop, this eBook brings collectiv...