The reality of wealth and your kids

A great deal of misfortune comes from unintended consequences of well-intentioned actions. Wealth advisers want to serve their family clients well, but their work can lead to the opposite outcome.

Here is a common scenario. The wealth creators want to protect their family from harm they fear can come from irresponsible use of the family’s assets. They also want to take care of their growing families. To do this they create a “family office” with advisers whose job is to take care of investing, managing and sharing the family’s assets. Because the assets are considerable, these professionals handle taxes, household expenses, education, health care, housing, transportation and everything the young family members need. The wealthiest families have larger staffs whose desire to be helpful leads to more services taken care of. By managing these things, the advisers, following the wishes of the wealth creator, are also acting to “protect” the growing family members from harm and misuse of their inheritances. The young family members do not have contact with their wealth; they seem to grow up but remain in a state of innocence, protected from making mistakes.

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About the Author(s)

Dennis T Jaffe

Dennis T. Jaffe, Ph.D., is an adviser to families focusing on family business, governance, wealth and philanthropy. He leads Wise Counsel Research’s “100-Year Families” study.


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