Our Families
Family Qualitative Capital Management™ has been designed and developed for a select group of families with significant wealth who are committed to their family members’ flourishing. Over the last two decades Wise Counsel Research has consulted to well over 200 families and family businesses. Many of our clients have their own single-family offices or belong to boutique multi-family offices.
The following are real examples of client families who have benefited from Family Qualitative Capital Management:
Communicating about Legacy
A patriarch and matriarch with significant wealth had not communicated with their children and grandchildren about the extent of their wealth or their estate plans. Through Family Qualitative Capital Management, they clarified their desired legacy, which led to a revision of their estate planning. It also led to their holding individual meetings with each of their adult children, to share their proposed plans and to hear their children’s input. Based on that input, the mother and father completed the revision of their plans and then shared their overall intentions with their entire family at a family meeting. Wise Counsel Research helped design and facilitate the individual meetings and the family meeting.
“How Much is Enough?”
Two entrepreneurial parents were thinking about giving away during their lifetime much of the wealth they had created. They wanted to engage their adult children to decide what to do. The process of Family Qualitative Capital Management helped both generations see that they largely shared a vision for the good that the wealth could do in the world and in their personal lives. As part of their multi-year plan, they engaged in a series of conversations about their values, set up a foundation board to oversee their shared giving, and decided “how much is enough” to transfer to each adult child’s household.
Engaging the Rising Generation
A close-knit family was concerned about the effect of their significant wealth on their children. The Family Qualitative Capital Management program led the family to clarify their shared values, family history, and the parents’ concerns. The parents worked with appropriate experts to create an individual development plan for each child. In addition, the family implemented a financial education program for the rising generation as a whole. As a result, members of the rising generation were better prepared for the wealth they were to inherit and engaged much more actively in family meetings over the coming years, feeling that they truly had a voice.
Establishing Effective Family Governance
A multi-generational family was transitioning from strong patriarchal leadership to shared decision-making by siblings and cousins. The Family Qualitative Capital Management program helped confirm the family’s desire to remain connected and it gave the family direction in working together to create structures for making decisions, including a Family Council, Family Office Board, and Family Constitution. Wise Counsel Research also helped the family create plans for developing family leaders, to ensure that these governance structures would continue to evolve and serve the family well for years to come.