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| Building Your Family's 100 Year Plan: The Series |
100 Year Plan Introduction: Making Meaning of Wealth Across Generations
Brett Anderson
12/01/2003
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A 100-year plan is a framework, in other words, for our families’ successful interaction with four constantly evolving entities:
• Our families
• Financial and other institutions that serve our interests
• Our community (however large or small)
• And our businesses.
A common problem in many families is the emphasis on increasing financial resources while neglecting the development of family members. These individuals’ talents and enthusiasms will drive the future of our family enterprise, and so forward-thinking families adopt this purpose as their prime directive: to realize each member’s full potential, individually as well as within the group.
This does not mean that members impose their will on individuals, but rather that each individual’s strengths add value to the whole. A principal turning point in the Rockefeller family occurred when Rockefeller Sr. gave his blessing to John D. Jr.’s decision not to enter the firm: After the outbreak of a bribery scandal by a Standard Oil executive in 1908, the younger man informed his father he wanted to devote his life to philanthropy. Rockefeller, who tried to groom his son as successor, replied, "I want you to do what you think is right." This blessing must have cost the father great anguish; still, John D. Sr. comprehended that his son’s new path would impart valuable leadership to the family in the approaching decades: Junior not only championed the family’s staggering charitable works, but in effect, established its framework for long-term wealth management by founding the family office, under the stewardship of which the family’s finances continue to prosper.
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