I made it a priority 20 years ago to start having my kids travel with me.
Two family office principals explain how they keep several generations aligned when each generation communicates differently. Uli's family started biannual family governance retreats about 25 years ago, lasting several days, often at places like national park lodges, with agendas built from family members' input and facilitation by staff or outside consultants. The second panelist has 5 married children and 18 grandchildren, holds family meetings each spring and fall, and now lets his oldest son set the agenda as he hands off to his children. After an exit, his family interviewed several multi-family offices, decided the fees were too high, and has run its own family office with his two sons for 7 years. Both say the non-financial side, from shared experiences to financial literacy and health and wellness, holds the family together alongside the money.
- 01Uli's family has held biannual family governance retreats for about 25 years, lasting several days and run by internal staff or, more often now, outside consultants.
- 02Retreat agendas combine topics raised by family members with items from the person in charge, followed by extensive Q&A.
- 03Locations such as national park lodges echo trips the family took as children and build the emotional bond that money alone does not.
- 04The second panelist's family has held adult family meetings twice a year, in spring and fall, for 10 years, and his oldest son now sets the agenda.
- 05After the exit, the family compared several multi-family offices, judged the fees too high, and has run its own family office for 7 years, syndicating deals with other family offices in the Intermountain West.
- 06Grandchildren who are old enough are taught financial literacy and health and wellness alongside the finances.
[01:12]"So one thing we started doing probably 25 years ago was to have biannual family governance retreats that would last several days, and we might get those facilitated or moderated sometimes by internal staff, and now more also by finding some outside consultants on that."
[03:25]"I made it a priority 20 years ago to start having my kids travel with me and be aware of what I was doing. So when the exit took place and we stood up a family office, we didn't think we were going to do that."
[03:36]"We thought we'd do a multi-family office. I don't have a finance background, but the more we looked at it and interviewed several multi-family offices, and they're fantastic, but I looked at the fees and said, I think we can figure this out ourselves."
Chapters
How do you keep multiple generations of a family aligned?
One family has held biannual family governance retreats for about 25 years, lasting several days, with agendas drawn from family members and facilitation by staff or outside consultants. Another holds adult family meetings every spring and fall and lets the oldest son set the agenda.
Should we use a multi-family office or set up our own family office?
One panelist expected to use a multi-family office after his exit, but after interviewing several and reviewing their fees he decided his family could run its own. He and his two sons have run it that way for 7 years, even though he says he has no finance background.
What should we teach grandchildren about family wealth?
One panelist's family teaches grandchildren financial literacy and health and wellness once they are old enough to understand. He treats those topics as being as important as the finances themselves.
Full transcript
804 wordsSo when I think about the younger generation and communication, how they communicate versus how my father grandfather communicated are completely different. So this question ties into communication. How do you, you know, within your organization deal with whether it's, you know, from one generation to the next, how do you effectively deal with communication and um manage multiple generations and so that everyone's aligned? So here, we'll we'll tie into um another part of this question, but like I don't know if anyone you've obviously anyone who has kids out here when you come home, I don't know if you've had the the experience where you go outside and everyone's sitting on their cell phone and they're all together but no one's talking to each other.
And um so when I think about the younger generation and communication, how they communicate versus how my father, grandfather communicated are completely different. So this question Ulie I'll start with you ties into communication. How do you you know within your organization deal with whether it's you know from one generation to the next how do you effectively deal with communication and um manage multiple generations and so that everyone's aligned. So one thing we started doing probably 25 years ago was to have bianual family governance retreats that would last several days and we might get those facilitated or moderated uh sometimes by internal staff and now more also by finding some outside consultants on that and uh preparing an agenda both from the family members as well as just what I would generate as being in charge of that.
Uh and then we run through it and there are a lot of Q&A and we're able to uh do this in a very how should I say conducive environment some place usually in the United States uh sometimes outside uh that goes back to even as kids we used to visit national park lodges so we might choose a location like that that gives us a little bit of a DNA feeling uh like like something that we've been doing for a long time uh and I think that addresses in large part the emotional component as somebody was just saying you know the resources other than financial whereas I would argue that money is a strong you know clue that keeps people coming back and especially when performance is good and when it's not then you know there may be issues uh but in terms of those let's say soft skills or soft aspects of it that that goes a long way uh to to creating a bond so right I you know how how do you you know incorporate or communication, you know, in your family office.
Sure. Uh that's easy. We have a small family officers, myself and my two sons. However, we have a large family. Uh we communicate a lot. I have five children.
Uh they're all married. I have 18 grandchildren. Wow. And so, uh we started 10 years ago having regular family meetings, uh with the adults. And we're have in fact our our one is coming up week from Saturday, our one here in the spring. We have one in the spring, one in the fall.
And uh we've got to the point now where my oldest son really sets the agenda, does most of the talking, and uh I'm there if he need has if they have any questions. But really, we're in I'm in a point in my life where I'm making the transition, the handoff to my children. And we we made it a priority years ago. I made it a priority 20 years ago to start having my kids travel with me and be aware of what I was doing.
So when the exit took place and we stood up a family office, we didn't think we were going to do that. We thought we'd do a multif family office. I didn't I don't have a finance background, but the more we looked at it and interviewed several multif family offices and they're fantastic, but I looked at the fees and said, I think we can figure this out ourselves. And that's what we've done for the last 7 years.
And so, we're very active in how we we're just ourselves. We syndicate with a lot of other other family offices uh in the inner mountain west and we find great deals because of how well we we communicate and we make sure that with our family meetings that are but not only my children but now the grandchildren now are getting old enough to understand we're teaching financial literacy, health and wellness and a number of things that are more important or as important as the finances in in the family.
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