What good governance looks like Several years ago, a wealth manager approached me with a problem. The family of one of her clients, a very successful public company CEO, was in disarray. Challenges included spendthrift behavior, family members disrespecting staff of...
What’s really going on around family wealth? The term family dynamics is used by family wealth advisors more often than it is explained. Usually they use it to mean things that go wrong in a family due to personalities, relationships, and interactions. I’ve heard...
The proven path to preserving long-term wealth What I call Family Wealth Ways are exactly that—ways to develop and preserve family wealth for generations to come. Family Wealth Ways are rooted in practices drawn from family governance, family wealth dynamics, sound...
It’s not for everyone Family wealth is usually defined as business, real estate, or financial assets jointly owned by family members rather than a single individual or nonfamily partners. In wealth management circles it is also usually considered multigenerational...
Steps to take before things get out of hand A number of years ago, a study found that the two most common causes of failures to successfully hand off a family-business to successors were unprepared heirs and poor communication among family members. Even families who...
These habits pose greater dangers than high taxes or low returns Habits that destroy family wealth or a family business come naturally to many wealth creators and business owners. Some of the habits I cover in this post can emerge over time as one becomes more...