Family Wealth: Keeping It in the Family--How Family Members and Their Advisers Preserve Human, Intellectual, and Financial Assets for Generations (Bloomberg Book 34)

FAMILIES WHO RECOGNIZE with ritual the important passages in their members’ lives seem to fare better at overcoming the shirtsleeves proverb. This should not be surprising, since the creation and practice of rituals marking important developmental steps in the life of a human being are at the core of successful tribal life.

The assets of a family are its individual members. (D) The wealth of a family consists of the human and intellectual capital of its members. A family’s financial capital is a tool to support the growth of the family’s human and intellectual capital. (E) To successfully preserve its wealth, a family must form a social compact among its members refle

But families attempting to overcome the “Shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations” proverb should define short-term as twenty years, or one generation; intermediate as fifty years, or two generations; and long-term as one hundred years, or three generations. This difference of view profoundly affects the nature of the assets and liabilitie

Every family I have observed that is successfully preserving its wealth is a reflection of the five virtues of truth, beauty, goodness, community, and compassion. Transcending all of these is its reflection of love. Families who preserve their wealth successfully reflect these virtues in their relationships both with family members and with all per

family’s ability to remain in business over a long period of time always comes down to excellent long-term succession planning, regardless of how successful the family is financially.

Families attempting long-term wealth preservation often don’t understand that they are businesses and that the techniques of long-term succession planning practiced by all other businesses are available to them as well. A family that starts its long-term wealth preservation planning by adopting the metaphor that it is a business will begin with a w

They have understood that the critical first step for a family beginning long-term wealth preservation is to found an excellent system for decision making, a system of governance. The second step is adoption of a formal process for each successive generation to reaffirm its acceptance of the family’s system of governance.

The mission of family governance must be the enhancement of the pursuit of happiness of each individual member. This will enhance the family as a whole and further the long-term preservation of the family’s wealth: its human, intellectual, and financial capital.

It must provide a means for the collection and dissemination of the accumulated knowledge of all family members.