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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...

Decision making for a family enterprise is complicated and there is typically not an absolute right or wrong answer. Even when a family is on board with a shared vision of what they want to accomplish with their wealth, how do you bring them together to make the decisions needed to get there? Following six recommended steps, a family enterprise can...

This handbook is designed to support families connected through wealth understand the importance and value of family meetings. It provides the concepts, tools, and resources with the intention of helping them optimize their family meetings and build towards a more cohesive, resilient, adaptive family.

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 ...

Family connectedness, not money, has the greatest influence on multi-generational family continuity. But when many think about legacy, it’s often in the context of multi-generational financial wealth. Money, though, masks what people are really interested in passing to future generations of their family. Money can support the connections, but...

Succession planning for a family business inevitably requires planning for the transition of the management team. This transition presents several challenges, including dealing with non-family managers and with a family member who is not suited for a leadership role in the business. These difficulties are not insurmountable, and, with clear communi...

The question Virginia “Ginny” Esposito, Founder of the National Center for Family Philanthropy, gets asked the most, is “How can I engage my family in philanthropy?” In this episode, Ginny highlights what family business is and common trends in the work she has been in for over 30 years. She has lots of wisdom for parents an...

Since the age of 14, Angus McRae had been the sole caretaker of the Markham family lodge and its surrounding 800 acres, where the Markham family connected and bonded. The original Markham brothers had bought the property in rural Quebec Province from Angus’ forebears who were the first people to settle the area. Five generations of the Markha...

If you are a newer family foundation with one or two generations on the board, five generations may seem like a long time away. Yet in family philanthropy, quite a few foundations have been operating and thriving for 50, 75, even 100 years. What’s the secret of these family philanthropies that make it five generations, and across family branches? H...

Until recently, many families filled key governance roles associated with their trust and estate planning with trusted friends, colleagues, or advisors who were flattered to be asked and honored to serve. But many are now ready to retire and there is a shift in who is recruited—and willing—to take over. Top-caliber directors and t...

Because of social and cultural changes that have increased women’s control of wealth, this paper seeks to help families navigate this newer development—where the female partner’s inherited wealth significantly exceeds that which her spouse is likely to generate through his own inheritance or work. It begins with McKayla’s st...

Since the early 1900s, wealthy families have borrowed from corporate America to draft mission statements or similar declarations to define their shared values and legacy. And much like the corporate world, not everyone agrees on the term “mission statement.” Many families and advisors prefer words like purpose and vision. Whatever forma...

If you are wondering how it is possible that everyone in your family is offering an excuse for missing the family meeting date, then it is time for some new ideas or approaches to turn these meetings into events that no one wants to miss. How? By planning a purposeful family event that also happens to include the family meeting. In addition, it wil...

This paper will examine ways to lessen six of the greatest risks to preserving and enjoying multigenerational wealth. These six risks are: concentrating your assets, overspending, overusing leverage, poor tax planning, not attending to liabilities, ignoring family governance

Adult children, who one day will manage a family's wealth, need to understand the values and investment strategies of older family members. This article from Northern Trust shows how a family's elder statesmen can pass on a family legacy of more than money to ensure continuity and financial security for future generations.