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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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Ideas in Action
The concept of a constitution suggests the tactical considerations underlying our 100-year plans. The family mission, after all, is merely an idea; in order to apply it to life situations, we must adopt sets of rules that establish the modes of interaction and decision making among family members. These rules should be agreed upon and enforced by the group, with each member having representation. This governance can be achieved through informal meetings in smaller families, and through broader family councils within larger extended ones. Gatherings must be held regularly, their chief object being to maintain communication, establish strategy with respect to the disposition of assets, define and refine individual roles within the body, and oversee interaction with institutions and legal instruments (banks, advisers, trusts, family offices, and foundations) that house the family’s various assets.
We must regard these institutional relationships as, in many respects, extensions of the family itself. The professionals charged with supporting our family agenda must adopt that agenda as their own, working alongside family representatives to align assets with expressed goals and supporting our internal organizations through services. Institutional relationships can formalize the processes we have decided upon for ourselves, says Stacy Eastland, a trust attorney for Goldman Sachs & Co. "Of course, there are no magic bullets for achieving goals, but institutional structures can provide guidelines," says Eastland.
The Profit in Giving
Stewardship encompasses a family’s relationships to the community, as well, in the form of philanthropic entrepreneurship. Here, institutional partners can be indispensable in implementing objectives, advising representatives on the appropriate vehicles, and then administering them.
An especially vital component of every 100-year plan, the practice of philanthropy reaffirms the values from which our family mission is hewn, enhancing their relevance to our lives by transferring them from thought into action. "Giving, such as through a foundation, raises consciousness about the values you’ve set forth," observes Peck. "This legacy is very significant to transferring these to the next generation, because your legacy is the way you live your life, and how you use your money."
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