Are you and your family prepared for your business or wealth transition?
Generational stability and transition is the highest risk for family continuity and creating a legacy family. Globally, it’s accepted that more than 70% of wealth transitions fail, and the two major reasons for failure are:
- The lack of regular and effective communication between ALL family members, leading to a breakdown in trust, and
- The lack of education and training of the next generation about money, wealth and the business.
(Williams and Previser, “Preparing Heirs” 2012)
Moreover, family continuity and good governance must be built upon a strong foundation, which will provide comfort that the governance practices are meaningful and given the best chance of success.
In the absence of a strong foundation, a weak foundation will most likely provoke predictable problems when it comes to implementing recommended governance procedures.
Our sole focus is to facilitate a proven methodology to improve the health and harmony of families through engaging with all members of the family as the foundation of what is important for family business success. We do this by connecting family and business, by asking the difficult and personal questions others won’t, and through building in good governance to ensure the protection and preservation of the family legacy.
As an owner of wealth or a family business...
- What is the purpose of your wealth/family business?
- Do you want ownership to continue within the family?
- What is your shared vision for the future of the family and the business? Are your family aware of your vision or intentions?
- How do you hope to be remembered? Every family has a story, only few leave a legacy. What do you want your legacy to be?
- How certain are you that the future of your family and business will be grounded in strong values that unite rather than divide?
As the Trusted Advisor to families of wealth or family businesses...
- Are you aware that 98% of your clients will leave you and your firm on the passing of your client and their spouse?*
- Successful advisors have often developed relationships with spouses and the adult children. How would you rate the strength of relationships you have with these future inheritors of your client’s family wealth or business?
- How confident and comfortable are you with having difficult conversations with your clients around mortality, letting go and family conflict that pose a risk to the succession of the family business?
*Cisco Wealth Management Survey, December 2012
How we can help you
While our approach is structured to meet the individual and collective needs of the families we work with, it can be broadly outlined as follows:
- Discover and understand your family
- Implement
- Preserve and protect
Discover and understand your family
Creating the opportunity for everyone to have a voice through facilitated conversations, and other methods as required, with a view to understanding the particular unique needs of each situation. Based on this understanding we then recommend how best to utilise our professional services.
Implement
With acceptance of our recommendation, we schedule meetings with definitive agendas to work through the key matters that have been identified.
We use a values-driven, practical approach to navigate the challenges and opportunities that families face in a way that strengthens family relationships.
Our work through this stage may involve:
- addressing past and present issues
- preparing for new opportunities or future challenges as they arise
- individual coaching
- next generation leadership development
- preparing for life after family business
- preparing children for wealth
- ongoing education programs.
Preserve and protect
A significant part of our work is the independent facilitation of ongoing family meetings scheduled on a regular basis, from monthly through to annually as required. These family meetings allow the family to focus on areas of difference or the feelings that surround them, with the purpose of coming to deeper agreement on establishing procedures for sharing information and reaching decisions on key issues.
The outcome of which is to protect and preserve the family legacy for future generations through:
- creating family governance, including family charter, estate planning, family councils, boards
- preparing for future growth
- helping the next generation develop the skills to lead the family
- identifying or redefining life purpose after family business
- defining and executing a succession plan.
We do this by:
- engaging with all members of the family
- connecting family and business
- asking the difficult and personal questions that others won’t or can’t
- working alongside your current advisors, respecting the role that they play in the success of your family and business.
We deliver our services to…
- Individuals, couples and families often spanning three or more generations
- Wealth creators and their families, who seek effective planning and long-term solutions
- Family offices, who provide centralised coordination of family matters
- Family businesses, where much of the family wealth and history was created
- Families foundations, where the core values of the family are preserved and passed down
- Advisors to families, whose role is crucial to the attaining of the family goals
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