The term ‘retirement’ evokes a certain scenario: someone spends their working life in employment, accumulating savings along the way, then ceases work (perhaps in their 60s or beyond), lives off…
Read More
Sudden change of any type is risky. When someone’s personal wealth circumstances change quickly, it can lead to all sorts of adverse and unintended consequences. Here are some examples: *…
As a tree grows, it is often helpful to prune some branches to make space for other branches to grow. As families grow generationally, “pruning” – allowing some family branches…
You might think conflict in family business is predominately around business performance. Wrong. At the core, it’s most commonly about the ‘people’ side of things: ineffective communication, and not recognising…
Q: We’re just approaching a liquidity event. How do I get my twentysomething children involved in our plans for philanthropy? A: Stop right there. You might be 10-20 years late. Many families…
Murray Bowen, pioneer of family systems theory, viewed the family unit as a complex social system where family members interact to influence each other’s behaviour. Rather than being a collection…
(spoiler alert) Plenty has been written about the popular TV series Succession and the lessons that can be learned for real-life family business succession; my goal is to convey something…
I’ve written several times about the challenges of advisor succession, and now want to look at this from a family risk perspective. If your advisor is suddenly unable to work,…
Change is in the winds. Women control more than 60% of personal wealth in the USA. While older generations hold a patriarchal view of wealth, only a third of their…
For years, we’ve been writing and talking about this trillion dollar wealth transition that is “going to happen in the next ten years”, ostensibly as baby boomers retire. But has…
One of the great challenges of family wealth is raising children. And one of the best articles I’ve read on the topic (and I read a lot of articles) is…
When there is more than enough wealth for the family itself, families often turn to philanthropy as a way of “giving back” to society. Like anything, philanthropy can be done…
