Please click to read this short piece on “What does good family governance look like?“, as published in Impact! online magazine on September 9, 2024, also a short video clip.

What does good family governance look like?

Last updated: July 7, 2026

What does good family governance look like?

The foundational question is, what is family governance? To me, governance in the family context is simply a fancy way of saying, “How are we as a family going to make decisions, especially when the chips are down, when it gets difficult, when there is a divisive family conflict?” The best family governance structure is the one that is thought about and agreed upon ahead of time, when the family is still in harmony.

As to what a good family governance structure looks like, it’s not a one-size-fits-all approach. What might be the perfect approach for one family might be completely inappropriate for another.

It is not beneficial for a family advisor to do some reading on the subject and then to suggest that a family establish a family assembly, and a family council, and a mission statement and a vision statement and maybe a family constitution, and just throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.

I worked with a family a number of years ago whose primary trusted advisor took that very approach. It was a relatively small family; G1 had just died, G2 were the 2 adult children, and G3 were young adults.

Their trusted long-time employee who now headed their single-family office had convinced the family to adopt each and every governance technique that he had ever read about, and the family ended up with a bloated governance structure that frustrated and disengaged everyone.

Why wasn’t that appropriate for this family? A Family Council is a representative government, along the lines of the U.S. Congress, where someone from each branch of the family represents their branch within the Council. With such a small family, representative government wasn’t necessary, at least at this generational level; perhaps in another generation or two as the family continues to grow, it might become more relevant.

By contrast, the Family Assembly is everyone. Using the same analogy, a Family Assembly would be the full U.S. electorate. In that client family, a Family Assembly would have been the appropriate governance body. In larger families where a Family Assembly might be unwieldy as a decision-making group, each member might not get a vote because it’s often a more passive situation, but they do have the opportunity to learn about the family enterprise.

Very often, family assemblies are positioned as an annual family gathering. One aspect of family governance that I particularly like to suggest is to have G1 endow a fund to pay for the expenses of the annual family reunion, including travel and hotel. I recently worked with a family where we organized annual family meetings, and I had to struggle to convince the patriarch to pay the travel expenses for his family members to attend this gathering.

What makes a good family governance system is as unique as your individual family, but I suggest that you embrace the notions of multi-directional communication and transparency, and demonstrate the foresight to establish a considered governance framework before the inevitable conflicts happen.

Please read this short piece discussing Reasons to Establish a Family Office, as published in Point of View online magazine on August 7, 2024, also a brief video clip.

Reasons to Establish a Family Office

Last updated: July 7, 2026

What are some of the reasons that families establish a Single Family Office?

The reasons are as unique as the families themselves, but ultimately, they tend to fall into a few different buckets.

One of the most common reasons is that the family office services provided evolve. When the wealth creators run their own operating company, often they will start having their company’s employees — perhaps their admin or their bookkeeper — take care of some personal matters. As long as the time spent on the owners’ matters is insignificant and immaterial relative to their corporate duties, it generally does not present an insurmountable issue, but often it takes on a life unto itself.

If the wealth creators then sell their operating business, now what do they do? They often feel that they still need their faithful bookkeeper or CFO to run their financial lives, and so sometimes they’ll personally hire those individuals, and the family office will have started in that way.

Ultimately, the inquiry of why families start a family office starts with the decision of whether to establish their own single-family office (SFO), join a multi-family office (MFO), or perhaps some hybrid of the two.

When it starts organically as I’ve described out of an operating company and the wealth creator needs someone to pay their bills, make sure their Crummey letters are sent out, their tax planning is coordinated and their investment reports are rolled up into a comprehensive summary, that frequently becomes a single-family office.

But when a family thinks about it in the bigger picture, they will need to decide whether it is more advantageous for them to form their own single-family office with custom services but a high price tag, or instead to join up with an established multi-family office where costs are scaled and services offered are institutionalized. That’s when families get into that calculus of the decision to build their own SFO versus outsourcing it into an MFO structure.

My general rule of thumb is that a family with assets of less than $500 million should not undergo the considerable expense of establishing its own SFO but should instead outsource to a MFO, unless there are compelling reasons to do so. The structuring of, and the calculus of, how you might decide those things is unique to each family.

Another important consideration is who the family office will serve. Is it simply serving the wealth creator generation, or will it also serve the next generation down, and potentially succeeding generations? If Mom and Dad have two kids, and each of them has several kids, before you know it there are a lot of people that the family office might serve. Who are the intended clients, and what services will they require that the wealth creator generation may not have envisioned? This aspect is another big factor in the calculus of creating a family office.

Each family must weigh a variety of issues when deciding whether to form their own single-family office or hire a multi-family office. The pros and cons for each option are as unique as the families themselves, based on their particular family makeup, needs, and wishes.

Click to read this short thought piece on Building Trust at a Family Meeting, as published in Talking Trends online magazine on July 8, 2024.
You can also watch this brief video clip.

Building Trust at a Family Meeting

Last updated: July 7, 2026

Building a threshold level of trust within the family is a critical component of planning for a family meeting. It is not always intuitive or easy.

I worked with a family not too long ago for whom I planned a family meeting. There were four branches of the family; the wealth creator generation had a son and three daughters. Based on their family culture, the daughters were sent to boarding school on another continent; they stayed there, married and had families there. The son stayed in the home continent and was raised to take over the family business.

By the time the family business had its liquidity event, the parents had long since passed away. The son sold the family business, and now there was a single-family office that took care of the family-at-large’s assets, investments and other family office functions.

The family office engaged me to plan a family meeting to, in large part, identify, develop and foster the next generation of leaders in the family. As part of my advance process, I determined that the four branches of the family didn’t even know each other, much less have any kind of common trust element.

I identified one member of the next generation of the family who was a photography enthusiast, and we organized a family photography exhibit. Together, we reached out in advance to each family member attendee, and asked them to send in a photo, not necessarily a family photo, but rather a photo that spoke to them for some reason, perhaps a special vacation picture, or just a piece of art that they thought was interesting.

I suggested that the photographer family member make a little exhibit of all the photos submitted, and then I encouraged each person to speak at the meeting about why they chose their photo and why that photo spoke to them. And in that way, they were able to share something really personal about themselves without divulging anything too personal to people who were essentially strangers. And in that way, they were able to get to know each other in a really safe space.

Through that exercise, we started to build a level of trust across the branches of the family. We built a level of intimacy. And from there, we were then able to develop a governance structure and talk about the family business, the family collective investment structures, best practices and policies and many other important initiatives. But it all started from introducing these people to one another, not just “Hi, I’m your cousin,” but rather, “Here’s something about myself that matters to me and here’s why.”

That was a really special opportunity to build trust in a safe and non-threatening space. Once those bridges were built, the additional work of developing the next generation of family leaders could begin.

Read this short piece discussing the importance of Communicating Your Family Legacy, as published in Inspiration and Insights online magazine on June 5, 2024, also a brief video clip.

Communicate Your Family Legacy

Last updated: July 8, 2026

My favorite quote on the topic of family legacy is from George Bernard Shaw, who said, “The single biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”

Many parents tell me that they believe that their kids have no idea about their family’s wealth. I often respond that nonverbally, the parents have often communicated much more than they think they have. Children watch their parents for nonverbal cues; how you live, how you travel, the relative size and location of your home, even the schools your children attend, will communicate volumes to your children.

In some cases, the parents have communicated a lot less than they might think they have. That is when children might turn to the internet for research. It will likely turn up information about your home’s value, your level of support for charitable causes, and a host of additional data that you might not even realize is publicly available.

Rather than passively allowing this information to dribble in to your family unfiltered and without context, I advise taking charge of the situation and being thoughtful and intentional about communicating your family’s values, culture and legacy with your children.

This does not mean that I advocate for baring your family’s balance sheet, especially if your kids are not yet developmentally ready to receive this information. What is does mean is that, in age-appropriate ways, I suggest that you begin talking to your kids about your family’s wealth, how it was produced, and discussing the themes, values and sacrifices that led to its creation and growth.

My watchword is to open up the lines of communication, and be intentional about that communication. Think about what you are communicating both verbally and non-verbally to your children and grandchildren, and encourage a culture of greater communication.

I am thrilled to have won at the Family Wealth Report Awards 2024 for Family Wealth Counseling! The awards ceremony was on May 2, 2024. The judges commented that 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.” What an honor just to be included with the other exceptional finalists in this category. Congratulations to all the talented and amazing professionals and firms who were recognized.