My Approach with Next Gen and Beyond

Generation-Based Engagement

My role is to act as a Sounding Board, facilitating structured conversations to articulate stakeholder’s vision and translate it into practical, actionable strategies that reflect their goals while fostering family unity and clarity.

Approach with Next Gen and Beyond:

My approach with Next Gen and Beyond is to meet them where they are, using relatable frameworks like storytelling or scenario planning to make complex concepts accessible. This ensures they feel empowered to engage with the family’s plans, aligning their contributions with their parents’ objectives while fostering trust and collaboration.

o     Navigating Legacy: I guide them to explore what their parents’ legacy means to them, helping them define their role as stewards while ensuring alignment with the parent’s goals.

o     Balancing Independence: For those seeking their own path, I facilitate discussions to integrate their ambitions with family expectations, creating clarity without compromising the parent’s vision.

o     Building Confidence: I focus on equipping them with knowledge and tools to manage their responsibilities, fostering readiness and cohesion across generations.

I create a productive, collaborative space to help the Next Gen and Beyond understand and embrace their role in the family’s vision, fostering peace of mind through clear, open processes. Tailoring communication to their evolving perspective, often balancing respect for their parents’ legacy with their own aspirations, I use tools like vision workshops or family agreements to clarify their responsibilities and align their goals with loved ones and future generations. This approach empowers them to confidently step into their role, reinforcing family unity without challenging their parent’s intentions, minimizing misunderstandings, and building a shared sense of purpose.

Case Study: Defining One’s Role

Scenario: I worked with three siblings whose parents had established a trust structure without fully informing two of them, pulling those siblings into a complex world of wealth management they neither anticipated nor felt prepared for. The third sibling, actively involved in the family business, understood their role in the Family Enterprise and Legacy plan but needed guidance on their non-involved siblings’ contributions. Instructed by their parents to educate them, my task was to help all three clarify their roles within the trust, starting from their individual perspectives.

Challenge: The siblings were in different places: one was curious but overwhelmed by the trust’s implications, another felt skeptical, questioning its relevance to their personal goals, while the third, immersed in the family business, sought clarity on how their non-involved siblings’ roles fit into their parents’ legacy plan. The two uninformed siblings lacked understanding of the trust’s purpose or mechanics, leaving them uncertain about their responsibilities. Despite their different functions, each role was equally vital to the plan’s success, but limited prior communication for two siblings created confusion, complicating alignment with the family’s vision, even with the third’s business knowledge.

My Role as a Sounding Board: As instructed by their parents, I began by meeting each sibling where they were, holding individual conversations to explore their perspectives and questions about the trust. With the curious sibling, I nurtured their desire to learn, easing their fear of complexity; with the skeptical sibling, I validated their need for relevance, tying the trust to their values. For the business involved sibling, I addressed their uncertainty about their siblings’ contributions, emphasizing that all roles, though distinct, were equally essential to the legacy. Instead of focusing on technical details like spreadsheets, I emphasized broad concepts, explaining the trust’s purpose, preserving family wealth and supporting shared goals, and its role as a legacy tool. Through separate and group discussions, I built foundational knowledge for the two less informed siblings, using analogies and scenarios to illustrate how trusts work, while ensuring the business involved sibling saw their siblings’ value. I then introduced ideas like governance, decision making, showing how these interconnected to uphold the family’s vision. By prioritizing themes, flexibility, stewardship, collaboration, over granular data, I helped all three understand how their unique contributions aligned with their parents’ intentions, respecting their individual viewpoints.

Outcome: This process empowered the siblings with a clear, shared understanding of the trust, delivering peace of mind through a transparent, concept focused approach. The curious and skeptical siblings gained foundational knowledge, building confidence in their roles, enriched by insights into how the trust supported family unity and legacy. The business involved sibling embraced their siblings’ contributions, recognizing their equal importance to the legacy’s success. Rather than feeling overwhelmed, skeptical, or unclear, all three saw themselves as vital contributors, aligned with their parents’ vision without compromising their perspectives. Their parents’ leadership was reinforced, as the siblings’ unified clarity ensured the trust served as a cohesive tool for generations to come.