Family Governance

Why Wealth Fails Without Governance

The statistic is sobering: 70% of family wealth is depleted by the end of the second generation, and 90% by the end of the third. The cause is rarely poor investment performance. It is the absence of a framework for communication, decision-making, and stewardship.

Family governance is the set of structures, processes, and agreements that guide how a family manages shared wealth. It encompasses everything from how investment decisions are made to how conflicts are resolved, how new generations are educated about their responsibilities, and how the family's values and philanthropic commitments are sustained over time.

Christopher works with families who recognize that passing wealth to the next generation is only meaningful if that generation is prepared to receive it, manage it, and ultimately pass it forward.

Family Mission Statements

A family mission statement articulates the values, principles, and objectives that define how the family relates to its wealth. It serves as a guiding document for trustee decisions, philanthropic commitments, and the criteria used to evaluate opportunities and requests from family members.

The process of creating a mission statement is often as valuable as the document itself. It brings family members together around a shared conversation about purpose, responsibility, and legacy, conversations that many families never have until a crisis forces them.

Family Meetings & Communication Frameworks

Regular, structured family meetings create a forum for transparent communication about the family's financial position, investment performance, trust distributions, and philanthropic activities. They also provide an opportunity to address emerging issues, such as a child's career change, a beneficiary's financial difficulty, or a new business opportunity, before they become sources of conflict.

Christopher helps families establish meeting cadences, develop agendas, and create communication protocols that are appropriate for the family's size, complexity, and culture. Some families benefit from formal annual meetings with professional facilitation. Others prefer more intimate, quarterly conversations.

Next-Generation Education

Preparing the next generation to receive, manage, and steward family wealth is one of the most impactful investments a family can make. Yet it is one of the most frequently neglected aspects of estate planning.

Next-generation education programs can include age-appropriate financial literacy training, mentorship with family advisors, participation in philanthropic decision-making, internships within family businesses, and gradual involvement in trust governance. The goal is not to create dependency. It is to develop competence, confidence, and a sense of responsibility.

Trustee Selection & Governance Structures

The choice of trustee, whether an individual, a corporate trustee, or a combination, has profound implications for the trust's operation, the family's satisfaction, and the trust's ability to adapt to changing circumstances. Christopher helps families evaluate trustee options, design trust protector provisions, and establish governance structures that provide appropriate checks and balances.

For dynasty trusts and other multi-generational structures, trustee succession planning is essential. A trust that is designed to last for centuries needs a governance framework that can endure beyond any single trustee's tenure, maintaining the grantor's intent while adapting to the needs of each new generation.