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[Reprinted with permission] Different places around the world continue to deal with the challenges of COVID in different ways. Whether they are experiencing a second wave, or varying degrees of opening up, many of the challenges and opportunities are still present. The issues that have arisen through the pandemic are primal, and place the fragility of life in sharp relief. Our instinctive responses also also primal: fight/flight/freeze, and we can remain locked in such states…

There are several good reasons why family enterprises should care about making active efforts toward gender equity. If they want family members to be involved, their talent pool is limited, so why waste 50% of their potential? A more diverse leadership team will reap the same benefits that have been noted in the non-family business world. Finally, family cooperation, collaboration and harmony are important to families, so excluding women from paths to leadership can lead…

In times of chaos, economic uncertainty, and the crushing burden to lead the family’s assets out of the fire, the need for governance grows even stronger.  Too many families consider family governance as a side dish – a pesky bug that wants to take away all the attention and resources from the main priorities which are revenues and operations. There is also an emotional side to effective family governance which is often overlooked by the…

There are very different generational attitudes to philanthropy in families. While previous generations saw philanthropy as “giving money to non-profits”, the rising generation of wealthy individuals has broadened and redefined the term, considering it to be “the action of transforming others’ social well-being through generosity”. The rising generation is more engaged and involved in philanthropic endeavors, and do so at earlier ages than their predecessors. They’re also motivated by the value propositions behind sustainable and…

Abraham Lincoln famously said: “Don’t swap horses in the middle of the stream”. Is a global pandemic the best time to change leaders? Or is it better to avoid dramatic changes during uncertain times? While we’d like to be well prepared, and knowing that succession planning is a process rather than an event, families may find themselves needing to accelerate the process at these times. Unplanned transitions don’t have to inevitably end in disaster, but when they…

A family office is usually structured around the individual needs and preferences of the family involved, and an increase in private wealth is fostering the creation of more and more single family offices (SFOs). The space is shifting rapidly, and with it comes the changing face of the family office and new definitions of what this means. One pervasive mistake is not developing a deep understanding of the goals, objectives and agendas of the wealthy…

Financial advisors are an ‘old’ bunch – with an average age in their mid-50s and a big bulge of advisors now in their 60s and 70s. If that didn’t already pose a risk to their clients, the COVID-induced recession means that many of them will leave sooner than expected – either by choice or otherwise – and may choose to retire completely in the current economic environment. Merrill Lynch, perhaps in response to both issues,…

During a crisis, having a family business can be a double-edged sword. On one hand, there are often family elders with experience in overcoming previous recessions, support from the family unit, and the fact that family businesses tend to be more risk averse and therefore in a better position to weather the storm. But some of those very attributes can also manifest as weaknesses. For example, family businesses have a concern for a wide range…