Family Council2023-05-31T12:40:04+02:00

The Family Council

Research suggests that 90 % of the wealth is lost by the time it is passed on to the third generation.

  • A Family Council needs to grow over the years

  • The Family Council needs to stay adaptable through the years and have processes in place to add and remove members of its council

  • The Family Council needs its own budget to engage with external advisors

  • The Family Council needs its own Charter that guides how it reaches decisions and how these are implemented

  • The Family Council needs to be aware of each member’s abilities and play towards these strengths. Where the abilities are not covered within the Family Council external help should be sought

The Four Abundances

Money, Time, Relationships, and Purpose are the basis of holistic Family Office Services. As a Family Council “matures” over time, the Family Council and its Four Abundances will become a source of competitive advantage compared to other families.

Abundance of Wealth

Your Wealth allows for giving your family opportunities and enabling you to engage in more and more exponential, interesting, and fulfilling projects. Most people want to keep the Abundance of Wealth in their family in perpetuity.

Abundance of Relationships

We have seen, time and again, the value of having a good team of advisors. Often, superior results are achieved through a better alignment of the advisors to the overall vision of the family.

Abundance of Time

The Abundance of Time focuses you on finding these activities. Time and again, we see clients pushed into a corner out of which they can only defensively react to what is coming towards them.

Abundance of Purpose

How can the whole family be involved in the Purpose? Imagine the cohesion within the family if everybody is working towards a common Purpose. We help our clients formulate a strategy to give purposefully and in alignment with their inner vision.

The Family Office Tools we offer

The Family Council Cards

The Family Council Cards are a set of tools helping you start the conversation within the family and see how much consensus can be found and where the obstacles lie.

The Family Council Cards are to be used exclusively by the family; without the presence of an advisor. The results from this first session then get collated into the next tool, the Family Council Canvas.

The Family Council Canvas

The Family Council Canvas is your dashboard that details the long-term (25 years), mid-term (3 years), and short-term (one quarter) goals and brings this into the context of the Vision you have. The Family Council Canvas brings together insights from the Financial Reporting, Family Council Cards, and ongoing projects into one dashboard. The Family Council Canvas allows you to get an overview and status on your way to achieving your Vision related to the Four Abundances: Wealth, Time, Relationships, and Purpose.

The Family Council Module

The Family Council Module is a collection of essential training segments allowing for a Family Council to mature and become independent and self-sustainable.

1. Providing the Family Council with a raison-d’être and the tools needed to succeed together. Much of this has to do with the shared mindset which needs to be a sense of togetherness and wanting to achieve in the future.

2. Giving the members of the Family Council an overview of the specific – not generalized – tax and legal plan prepared for the family. Each family’s situation is unique and should be treated as such.

3. Utilizing the tools learned in the previous two modules to have the Family Council appreciate and take advantage of their role.

Family Council Tools

What is a Family Council?

The Tools of a Family Council

Finding consensus in a Family Council

Aligning the Family Council with the Family’s Values.

The interaction between the Family Council and trustees, lawyers, tax advisors, asset managers, etc.

Specific Family Training

Trusts and companies

International assets

Taxation

Inheritance and wills

Moving to another country

Asset management and reporting

Preparing for Independence

Entrepreneurism

Philanthropy

Relationships and working together

Finding time to strategize

Adapting the Family’s Values

Thinking long-term

The Family Council Module

The Family Council Module is a collection of essential training segments allowing for a Family Council to mature and become independent and self-sustainable.

1.Providing the Family Council with a raison-d’être and the tools needed to succeed together. Much of this has to do with the shared mindset which needs to be a sense of togetherness and wanting to achieve in the future.

Family Council Tools

What is a Family Council?

The tools of a Family Council

Finding consensus in a Family Council

Aligning the Family Council with the family’s values.

The interaction between the Family Council and trustees, lawyers, tax advisors, asset managers, etc.

2.Giving the members of the Family Council an overview of the specific – not generalized – tax and legal plan prepared for the family. Each family’s situation is unique and should be treated as such.

Specific Family Training

Trusts and companies

International assets

Taxation

Inheritance and wills

Moving to another country

Asset management and reporting

3.Utilizing the tools learnt in the previous two modules to have the Family Council appreciate and take advantage of their role.

Preparing for Independency

Entrepreneurism

Philanthropy

Relationships and working together

Finding time to strategize

Adapting the family’s values

Thinking long-term

Questions we often encounter

How can time be found to focus on the important things?2022-07-04T11:18:29+02:00

Conscious of the limited amount of time available, it is important to do the right thing. Tools and methods need to be in place allowing for the family to have enough bandwidth to deal with sudden complexities that arise. If all the mental bandwidth is used to deal with standard processes, these sudden complexities will be insufficiently dealt with. We devise these tools and methods to help our clients regain the strategic initiative.

How can the wealth be passed on to the following generations?2022-07-04T11:18:29+02:00

A family intent in creating dynastic wealth needs to create a strong glue to keep the family together. Without this glue, the centrifugal forces will pull family members into different directions and, ultimately, the splitting-up of the wealth to the family members. Whilst this is not necessarily bad, keeping the wealth together does provide for economies of scale (diversification, fees and access to know-how) that should not be underestimated. By forming a family council, the family can together create a vision of how the family is to pass on their wealth to the next generation and how to start the process of having family members participate in creating the dynastic wealth of the family for future generations.

How can the family make a lasting difference in the community?2022-07-04T11:18:29+02:00

Most families want to give back to the community and support their causes they believe in. On the other hand, society also expects a certain level of patronage from the families. The struggle often is to balance the wants and the needs of philanthropic giving, resulting in a sense of not truly knowing what the philanthropic engagement is good for. Next to a pure financial engagement, a more entrepreneurial approach can be taken in giving and supporting new ventures that focus on an altruistic or philanthropic purpose. The more involved families experience a greater feeling of joy and gratitude than from a transfer made to a charity.

Contact us

The most difficult thing is often making the first step. Start a conversation with us and let us together see how your aims align with our services.

Related Blog Articles

Keeping Together 3 Gens

By |June 29, 2022|Finance|

If your family has struggled with wealth issues, you may well have heard the old saw about the loss of wealth: “from shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations.” For those familiar with the pitfalls …

Go to Top