“One of the few women on the national speaking circuit who is guiding financial services firms and their clients to connect with the human side of the client relationship.” — Family Wealth Report Awards 2020
Click HERE to visit Susan’s YouTube page to see her in action!
Wealth Legacy Advisors “offers a range of services to families of significant wealth including advising on raising family members, developing leadership succession plans and legacies of family businesses. Susan R Schoenfeld is a true thought-leader in the UHNW community.” — Family Wealth Report Awards 2024
Back in 2013, I had a big idea — that what keeps families of wealth up at night is not their investments, taxes or estate plans, but rather raising their families in an atmosphere of wealth to become competent and confident stewards of their wealth.
What is in a name? Our name Wealth Legacy Advisors was chosen carefully to convey that we advise on the legacy of wealth, not the financial or investment management of that wealth. We are thought partners to UHNW families about the human issues of wealth: their legacy, stewardship and governance. We do not provide any investment advice, legal advice or tax advice, and do not sell insurance or any other product.
The families who have invited me into their worlds these past 10 years are each fascinatingly unique but, upon reflection, do tend to fall into two distinct patterns. First are the families experiencing some pressing business transaction or transition, perhaps in an operating family business or in the “business of the family” — the family’s ongoing investments, or even the family’s philanthropic vehicle.
These families brought me into their system because they trusted that my deep background in law and business advising UHNW families for my entire career would enable me to understand — and not inadvertently disturb — the complex and technical planning, agreements and transactions already in place.
Second are the families NOT experiencing an immediate business crisis, who want to get ahead of the curve by engaging in governance planning to set up the next generation for success, and creating structures for better communication and decision-making before the inevitable issues arise.
I’ve been engaged by family offices and by trustees of family trusts to foster responsibility and common bonds among beneficiaries, and by parents and grandparents to facilitate family meetings and engage in mission, vision and values exercises which might result in family constitutions and the like.
With my People-First approach, I’ve helped UHNW families like yours navigate the complex issues at hand, while acknowledging that the true source of tension may well be at the intersection of financial matters with the family dynamics iceberg lying deeper below the surface.
I am passionate about the work that I do with families of wealth. The so-called “soft issues” of wealth are the hardest of all, and I look forward to my next 10+ years of guiding families through the land mines … and having fun while doing so!
Our Services
Governance, Legacy and Stewardship:
- Family Meeting facilitation – guide families through difficult discussions involving complex business situations
- Leadership succession of family business or “business of the family”
- Governance Planning – customized for your family to develop competent and confident stewards of wealth
- Philanthropic Advice – develop the family’s mission, vision and values, use family’s philanthropy as a next generation teaching tool, serve as director on foundation boards, facilitate generational transitioning of family foundations
Coaching and Education:
- Personal Next Generation coaching
- Customized Next Generation, Women of Wealth/Mothers & Daughters education programs
- Multi-family office team member training to work with families of wealth in specialized areas of next generation education, women’s programming, stewardship, succession, and philanthropy
Fiduciary Risk Management:
- Independent member of family advisory councils
- Independent trustee of family trusts
- Guidance to trustees of family trusts
Click HERE for Susan’s 3 Rules of Family Governance!
Since 2013, we have provided objective thought-partnership to families of wealth, family offices and their trusted advisors on the human issues of wealth that keep you up at night — legacy, next generation, stewardship, governance, leadership succession, and philanthropy.
