The Three Forms of Governance

The Three Forms of Governance: A New Approach to Family Wealth Transfer and Asset Protection, Part I

This article talks about the appropriate role of governance, what does the family governance mean, and the persistent impact of generational outlooks on family wealth.

According to this article, we have to understand that governance is a process , that need to be done in order to preserve family wealth . Some successful families made purposeful decisions based on input from all family members within an expanded definition of family wealth , including family’s financial assets, human & intellectual capabilities.

Also the article talks about how family legacies are universal, and don’t focus only on financial wealth and philanthropy. Brunel, the one that said that, metions that family legacies have a broader focus, since a legacy is inherited and learned by each generation, but is also re-interpreted and then passed on and so on.

In order to have successful governance:

*Families naturally thrive when they govern themselves in a flexible manner within the context of the generational cycles they experience, keeping their eyes in their ultimate goal.

*To create a family mission statement/family constitution

Then the article explains that a effective governance is a set of processes and systems, which are carefully both designed and considered by leadership, and they are both considered and designed by leadership, and are based on the contributions of the family , embraced by all family members.

Then the article explains that the primary ingredients for successful governance are two:

* Input from all family members and careful consideration of that input by family leadership within the larger concept of family and

* Voluntary buy-in from family members with the understanding that their input has been acknowledged, recorded, and valued, even if it has not been directly implemented in the decisions at hand.

These ingredients have to be...