Family business consultant and educator Greg McCann has decades of experience consulting to other families and helping to run his own family's business. In this interview with Keith Whitaker he shares insights into a key challenge for every family enterprise: how to develop leaders. Greg describes the elements of vertical leadership development. He also offers a wealth of tips and practices that families can immediately put to work in developing leadership in all aspects of individual member's l...
Aug 21, 2019•28 min•Ep. 42
What is the point of family governance? Many a first-generation family leader has asked this question with some doubt that there is a point. Family business consultant Katherine Grady ably describes in this podcast how governance plays an essential role in the well-being of businesses and families that last for generations. In her interview with Keith Whitaker, Katherine describes the main structures of family governance--the Board and the Owner's Council--and their roles, as well as the perhaps...
Aug 14, 2019•40 min•Ep. 41
How do you prepare for a good goodbye? That is, the final goodbye, death. That is the fundamental question that Kathy Wiseman takes up in this podcast and her contribution to Wealth of Wisdom . In her conversation with co-editor Keith Whitaker, Kathy talks about the role of the study of anxiety in her work with families, and she draws several lessons from her experience about how to raise the question of death with aging family members and other relatives. Kathy also shares the wisdom that, whil...
Aug 07, 2019•32 min•Ep. 40
In this episode, Tom interviews Mary Duke about family meetings. Families are very complex ‘organizations’ all on their own, and the addition of wealth brings even more complexity. Families also face many changes over time – some predictable and some unexpected – which adds tends to add stress. So, good communication is key and family meetings are a helpful way to keep members in the loop and make decisions together. Mary offers practical guidance on using family meetings effectively. What are t...
Jul 31, 2019•49 min•Ep. 39
In this episode, Tom talks to Ashvin Chhabra (one of the fathers of goals-based investing) about ‘how you can make sure your portfolio lines up with your actual goals?’ This probably sounds obvious, but it is not commonly practiced in real life. In fact Ashvin argues that investing is not really about the markets at all - it’s about you , the investor. He show how you can organize your balance sheet into categories based on your goals and then fund each of those buckets with asset classes that a...
Jul 24, 2019•47 min•Ep. 38
Lee Hausner is one of the leaders in the field of family wealth and business. In this conversation with Keith Whitaker she shares insight on what makes families thrive, when parents should consider telling their children about wealth and how, when parents should begin giving their children access to family funds, and how to manage the question of giving fairly versus equally to the rising generation. She also offers practical direction on using family meetings to communicate and manage the famil...
Jul 03, 2019•35 min•Ep. 37
When should a family call it quits and go their separate ways? How can a family even think about this painful question? In this podcast, Keith Whitaker speaks with family business consultant Doug Baumoel about these fundamental questions, ones that, from time to time, any family that is managing a business or wealth together have to face. Doug reviews the concept of the 'family factor,' which measures a family's ability to navigate change together, based on shared history, shared vision, and tru...
Jun 19, 2019•35 min•Ep. 36
Business, wealth, family, and life itself all have a way of drawing our attention away from what matters most to what matters now , from the important to the urgent . In this episode, Tom talks to Thayer Willis whose chapter answers the question: What are the key considerations in crafting your legacy? Thayer offers a path to answering that question for yourself. It begins with identifying and clarifying your values, determining how you can better exemplify your values and priorities, and exampl...
Jun 12, 2019•40 min•Ep. 35
Jill Shipley’s chapter in Wealth of Wisdom is titled, ‘How Do You Raise Responsible, Independent, and Productive Children (versus Entitled Trust Fund Babies)?’. When working with wealthy families, this question comes up as often as any other question covered in the 50 chapters of the book. In this episode, Tom McCullough interviews Jill on what she thinks the best practices are for wealthy parents when it comes to raising their children. From thinking about how children mirror their parent’s beh...
Jun 05, 2019•47 min•Ep. 34
Though it may not be – nor should it be – the first question families ask, is often one of the most important ones when it comes to the management of their financial assets: What should my asset allocation be? When it comes to wealthy families, we can think of no better person to answer that question than Jean Brunel, the managing principal of Brunel Associates. In this wide ranging conversation, Tom McCullough talks with Jean on the goals based approach to investing and asset allocation, and hi...
May 29, 2019•40 min•Ep. 33
Life is complicated and it gets more so as wealth increases. At the same time, navigating the world of investments, financial products and planning is becoming more challenging every day. You can't be good at everything, so it is probably inevitable that you will have to rely on advisors with key technical skill and practical experience at some point. What do you do when you think you have found a good advisor, but you're not sure? In this episode Tom McCullough talks with Bob Dannhauser, the he...
May 22, 2019•35 min•Ep. 32
What are tools to build healthy families? That's the question that Keith Whitaker discusses with Christian Stewart in this podcast. Christian is a non-practicing solicitor in Hong Kong who consults with global families around family governance. Among other things, Christian describes exercises he uses with families around managing difficult conversations and expressing gratitude. He also talks about how advisors can develop a comfort level in deploying these tools with their families.
May 15, 2019•32 min•Ep. 31
In world where it is pretty much assumed you need a specialized and complex strategy to be a sophisticated investor, Robert Maynard argues that a simple, transparent and focused approach is a viable and successful alternative. He runs the $17 billion Public Employee Retirement fund for the state of Idaho and practices what he preaches. In this interview, Bob talks about the three ways to make money, the importance of understanding your goals, and the role of active management, among many other f...
May 08, 2019•37 min•Ep. 30
In common law countries, a very large proportion of wealth will be held in trusts by the third generation. As such, finding and retaining good trustees will be increasingly important. Yet, somehow, family trusts often preserve a family's financial assets, yet fail to preserve either family or trust. Hartley Goldstone, a trained lawyer and an experienced consultant to trusts and trustees, talks about how families can source great trustees and how trustees can ensure they fulfill their important r...
May 01, 2019•38 min•Ep. 29
John Davis is a household name in the world of families and business. He is one of the creators of the three circle model, which has been a helpful tool for understanding how families, managers and owners interact in family enterprises for over 40 years. In this episode, John talks about how he found his way into this work, the history of the three circle model, why family unity is important and how it can be built, and the future of enterprising families.
Apr 24, 2019•43 min•Ep. 28
In this interview, renowned investor Charley Ellis pulls no punches. Active managers, he says, cannot beat the market on a consistent basis. Fifty years ago, Charley argues, institutions did less than 10% of total NYSE trading, and individuals did more than 90%, and beating the market was probable for well-informed professionals. Today, full-time professionals who are constantly comparison-shopping inside the market for any competitive advantage are executing more than 98% of trades in listed st...
Apr 17, 2019•33 min•Ep. 27
Even as passive investing continues to rise in popularity, many families struggle with the choice of active versus passive. In this podcast Harvard Business School professor Randy Cohen, a close researcher of investment returns, argues that there's no going back to the days when famous managers could 'beat' efficient public markets. However, Cohen does identify four strategies that--with patience and the right advice--families should consider in order to achieve outsized returns with a significa...
Apr 10, 2019•47 min•Ep. 26
Risk is a commonly misunderstood concept – even more so for private clients, who have to operate in world that is increasingly tilted toward institutions and professional investors. In this interview, long-time investor Jim Garland, who shepherded the Jeffrey family portfolio for many years, provides his guidance on how families should think about investing and how they can manage risk. The way Jim thinks, risk means the possibility of not having available the money you need at the time when you...
Apr 03, 2019•37 min•Ep. 25
All parents want their children to learn good values. But what do we mean by values? And how are they learnt? These are just a couple of the question that Ellen Perry takes on in her chapter and this podcast interview with Keith Whitaker. Ellen also discusses what families can do when there are real disagreements over values or the choices that those values lead to, as well as specific activities that parents and grandparents can use to prompt productive conversations among their family members ...
Mar 27, 2019•40 min•Ep. 24
There are strong forces against family business continuity. So every enterprise must find ways to engage the rising generation. In this interview with Tom McCullough, Dennis Jaffe talks about how business families can increase the critical elements of connection, transparency, capability, and commitment. He also highlights some of the best practices around designing and holding effective family meetings, which can help to sustain these family building blocks.
Mar 20, 2019•41 min•Ep. 23
This podcast demolishes the myths that family businesses are beset by conflict and poised to fail. Instead, Josh Baron and Rob Lachenauer outline ways that family business owners can learn to practice "active ownership" and thereby materialize the true value that they bring to the business. In this interview with Keith Whitaker, they also discuss the signs that you're losing control of your family business and what to do about it.
Mar 13, 2019•39 min•Ep. 22
In the first chapter of the book, Patricia Angus tells a fascinating story about a conversation she had with a cab driver about wealth and life and asks the question – “Are you wealthy?” This question may seem at first blush easy to answer, just a quantitative matter. But of course it all depends on what you mean by “wealth”. In this conversation with Tom McCullough, she invites listeners to think through that question in ways far beyond money, including the impact that each of us has on the wor...
Mar 06, 2019•27 min•Ep. 21
What is the meaning of life? Why are we here? What opportunities--and challenges--does financial wealth pose for living well? These are just some of the questions that Rev. Scotty McLennan takes on in this wide-ranging discussion with Keith Whitaker, which also makes the case that reading well is key to living well.
Feb 27, 2019•33 min•Ep. 20
There are few topics more important and more challenging than family communication. Jennifer East is an advisor to business families and brings unique perspective to the topic. In this conversation with Tom McCullough, Jennifer talks about her own experience growing up in an entrepreneurial family and what she has seen in the many families she has worked with. She offers practical, concrete steps for improving family communication, which come down to good planning, structure, and the courage to ...
Feb 20, 2019•27 min•Ep. 19
What greater asset can there be than our children? Yet the desire for "enrichment" can often lead to children feeling pressured by the expectation for achievement. Psychologist Suniya Luthar and her daughter Nina Kumar have studied, written on, and lived the complexities of this experience. In this podcast with Keith Whitaker, they share what parents should look for and practices that they can use to help young children and teenagers navigate the complexity of school, sports, friends, and wealth...
Feb 13, 2019•26 min•Ep. 18
Some families have determined that they could benefit from the integrated objective approach offered by a family office, which then leads to another set of questions such as “Should you choose a single‐ family office or a multi‐ family office?” In this interview with Tom McCullough, family office expert Kirby Rosplock walks us through a thoughtful, reasoned, and personally relevant way to make this decision. She also offers some handy evaluation tools to understand the choices.
Feb 06, 2019•31 min•Ep. 17
Do you ever worry that you haven't found your philanthropic "passion"? Ellen Remmer, who has led one of the world's most innovative philanthropic consulting groups, challenges that concern right from the start of her interview with Keith Whitaker. Ellen talks about philanthropy as a journey that involves much experimentation, with learning from success and failures. She also supplements her chapter's definition of several key philanthropic terms with special attention to impact investing, which ...
Jan 30, 2019•33 min•Ep. 16
Dirk Jungé is a leader and pioneer in the family office field, providing leadership to his family’s firm, Pitcairn, for many years. Dirk was kind enough to write the foreword for Wealth of Wisdom. In this episode, he talks to Tom McCullough about how wealth is an amplifier of all things and how, if not properly tended, it can be a family’s undoing. And he tells many stories about experiences of client families and of his own (like “Rock Acres”) that have shaped his views of families and wealth....
Jan 23, 2019•29 min•Ep. 15
Jay can rightly be said to be the founder of the field of family wealth. In this discussion he reflects on the journey that brought him to this work, his current role as an elder, and the paramount importance of elders for families who wish to succeed over generations. Jay also discusses the true meaning of the proverb "Shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations" (hint: it's not just about money) and specific practices that families can and must adopt to face a future of radical changes....
Jan 16, 2019•39 min•Ep. 14
There are few assets that generate as much emotional heat as a family vacation home or estate. Jamie Forbes knows the power of family vacation property through his growing up part of the Forbes family, with their shared estate of Naushon Island off Cape Cod, which has been in the family for over 150 years. In this podcast Jamie shares specific practices that his family and others use to strengthen family communication and decision-making. He also talks about what it is like to grow up as a membe...
Jan 09, 2019•35 min•Ep. 13
