Children and wealth

The Quiet Part Out Loud??? – Part II

May 20, 2025Family Business Consulting, Family Wealth Consulting, Wealth Psychology Consulting

Last month, I shared three interactions with people I experienced, that were related to wealth in some way, and I asked readers to share their reactions. This month, I will share some of the feedback I received along with my thoughts. BOLD numbers indicate the situations I shared last month. Asterisks (***) indicate the additional feedback received and my thoughts. #1 – I’m at a NY Rangers hockey game at Madison Square Garden in New York City with my Read more »

The Quiet Part Out Loud???

April 12, 2025Family Business Consulting, Family Wealth Consulting, Wealth Psychology Consulting

I’m going to describe three actual situations I experienced in the last month. All three spurred my thinking about the psychology and dynamics of wealth and I’m looking for feedback, reactions, thoughts of all kinds. Please – let it fly! Whatever direction this takes is great. I will follow up in a couple of weeks with some of my own thoughts, but for now I want to see where people take these. Please go to LinkedIn and join the conversation Read more »

Inheritor Bias

November 19, 2024Family Business Consulting, Family Wealth Consulting, Wealth Psychology Consulting

This article by Business News Daily quotes one study which found that 68% of ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNW = $30 million or more) were self-made. The article refers to a second study by Fidelity Investments which found that 88% of all millionaires are self-made. In these studies, “self-made” means the wealth was not inherited. While this article focuses on how the UHNW wealth creators tend to get and stay rich (and their characteristics), I’m viewing it through a different lens – the lens of bias against inheritors, Read more »

Fall on Your Sword

September 26, 2024Family Business Consulting, Family Wealth Consulting, Wealth Psychology Consulting

I speak regularly around the United States on the topic of families and wealth. Areas of focus include developing communication, high-functioning family ownership groups, managing inevitable conflict, distinguishing between non-working family owners and family members who work in the business to grow it. I address reaching agreement on roles and responsibilities for each, developing governance to guide families across generations, and, the big one, developing the next generation. I have seen quite a bit when it comes to parents who Read more »

Stewardship: How Young to Start? Part II

June 24, 2024Family Business Consulting, Family Wealth Consulting, Wealth Psychology Consulting

Image Source: GreatSchools.org

Last month’s blog (take a quick read if you have not yet) was about how it is possible to start developing a stewardship culture in the next generation even at very young ages. I shared three videos and offered a number of food-for-thought questions to answer after viewing them. Here are the videos: 1 – The Farmhand (link to Facebook) 2 – The Warehouse Helper (link to TikTok) 3 – The Young Chef (link to Facebook) I would like to respond now to the questions I posed to the reader in Read more »

Stewardship: How Young to Start?

May 14, 2024Family Business Consulting, Family Wealth Consulting, Wealth Psychology Consulting

I work with wealthy families, some very wealthy families, and even some uber-wealthy families, and the truth is that they want what poor, working class, and all families want: happy, healthy, and productive kids. One of the growing areas of my practice is coaching wealthy couples before they have kids and parents of very young children—babies and toddlers. I call my work with them the Purposeful Legacy Family Project . While I’ve always included teens and young adults in coaching and family retreats, I’m Read more »

Fairness, Once Again

March 25, 2024Family Business Consulting, Family Wealth Consulting, Wealth Psychology Consulting

“Once Again” is in the title here because I’ve already written several blog posts about fairness in the context of family; this is one of the repeating topics arising with the enterprising families I work with. It is understandable that families often ask me for the best way to be fair in their situation. It makes complete sense that they ask this. If there was a rule book or definitive guide, I’d share it freely. Of course, there is no Read more »

Mom’s Death Gift

February 21, 2024Family Business Consulting, Family Wealth Consulting, Wealth Psychology Consulting

First of all, my mom is still alive. She is wise, has a wicked sense of humor, and is always willing to talk about topics most people find challenging. All of this is a gift, in and of itself. Let my explain, then, why I am referring to this lesson as: Mom’s Death Gift. Death is a typically challenging topic of conversation. I see people avoiding death (thinking about it, planning for it, discussing it with others, even believing it Read more »

Next Gen Pushback

July 22, 2023Family Business Consulting, Family Wealth Consulting, Wealth Psychology Consulting

“Pushing back” is one of the ways members of the next generation assert their independence and differentiate themselves from parents and other, older family members, and even the family system as a whole. Pushing back can be subtle, such as frequent polite disagreement, or it can be glaring, such as disregarding specific, important requests from parents. A natural part of growing up, resisting the control and authority of parents and other senior family members and caretakers is common in one Read more »

Warren Buffett and Raising Kids

June 17, 2023Family Business Consulting, Family Wealth Consulting, Wealth Psychology Consulting

My friend and colleague, Marvin Blum, is an estate planning attorney in Texas. He is a really good guy and has a wonderful and creative blog – The Family Legacy Planning Series . Marvin’s May 9th, 2023, post inspired the idea for this one. Warren Buffett is famous for saying “I want to leave my children enough so that they can do anything, but not so much that they can do nothing.” You may have heard this quote. At a Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting Marvin had the “ chutzpah ” Read more »

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