family business

Family DYSFUNCTION

March 9, 2023Family Business Consulting, Family Wealth Consulting, Wealth Psychology Consulting

What is it about family dysfunction? The large majority of my job is facilitating, educating and coaching families who share ownership of businesses and legacy wealth to help them communicate well, manage conflict, create high-functioning, family-ownership teams and develop governance for decision making, sharing information and inclusion of subsequent generations. I also specialize in working with couples–pre-children or with very young children on how to set the stage for responsible, productive and values-based lives in the context of family financial Read more »

In-Laws

November 8, 2022Family Business Consulting, Family Wealth Consulting, Wealth Psychology Consulting

In-laws. They marry into our families, and we marry into theirs. Immigrants from one family to another. If you’ve followed this blog for a while, or know me personally, you likely know that my family’s commercial printing business was sold long ago. But when I was in college, I had to decide to enter the family enterprise or go my own way, and I went my own way for several reasons. Top among these: knowing the best chance I had Read more »

NHL Hockey and Family Business Leadership

October 26, 2021Family Business Consulting, Family Wealth Consulting, Wealth Psychology Consulting

(Photo Released by NHPL)

If you know me or have followed this blog for any amount of time, you’ll know I like to make parallels between family business and pro hockey and rock bands. Both have similarities to families and, I’d make the case, ARE families when at their best. Is blood connection necessary to be a family? FAMILY BEYOND BLOOD For most of history, family was primarily defined by blood connections. In more recent times, family has taken on a broader and dynamically Read more »

Deepening New Client Conversations

September 23, 2020Family Business Consulting, Family Wealth Consulting, Wealth Psychology Consulting

I was recently speaking to a friend and colleague about the conversations he has with new clients. He is one of a new wave of wealth managers (and other professionals) who are as interested in getting to know the full picture of their client’s lives as they are about investment and planning strategies. He asked for my thoughts on deepening client conversations. Opening up conversations about money, business, family and legacy with a new client or even a prospect can Read more »

Coronavirus and Family Business

March 25, 2020Family Business Consulting, Family Wealth Consulting, Wealth Psychology Consulting

My family business clients all have various amounts of what every family has: closeness and harmony, as well as distance and conflict, to name a few elements. And, they share various levels of involvement in a business – leadership, management, ownership, or simply working there to see if that is what they want for the coming decades. Being tightly connected to family can put a smile on your face, or a pit in your stomach – and sometimes both. I Read more »

Forever 21

February 23, 2020Family Business Consulting, Family Wealth Consulting, Wealth Psychology Consulting

Do Won Chang and Jin Sook Chang created the retail chain Forever 21 from nothing when they came to the U.S. from South Korea. They built it to revenues of more than $4B at its height and had 43,000 employees. Their daughters, Linda and Esther, both received Ivy-league educations and were given high-level executive positions. Mr. Chang was CEO dealing with real estate and vendors and Mrs. Chang was heading up design and merchandising. At the end of last year, Read more »

Thanksgiving in August???

November 26, 2019Family Business Consulting, Family Wealth Consulting, Wealth Psychology Consulting

Friends and Colleagues, The Thanksgiving/holiday season is upon us and I have made a donation in honor of all of you to the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen (TASK). Rather than cards or pies or gifts (which are all really cool) I decided to write to you here and send money to TASK to make an impact on the issue of hunger – an area important to me. I’ve been volunteering monthly for over 10 years at TASK and am always moved by how the Read more »

Upstate NY Family Business Day

August 25, 2019Family Business Consulting, Family Wealth Consulting, Wealth Psychology Consulting

My friend and colleague, Michael Palumbos of Family Wealth & Legacy, LLC , has founded the Upstate NY Family Business Group. The inaugural Upstate New York Family Business Day Symposium will take place September 24, 2019 in the greater Rochester, NY area. I’ll be giving an opening keynote entitled “Cracking the Family Business Code” in which I’ll address the opportunities and challenges of combining family and business. In addition, I will present my Metallica documentary-based session “What Your Family Business Can Learn from Metallica” in the afternoon, which is consistently my most highly rated session. Read more »

Jeff interviewed by Jane Beddall

June 25, 2019Family Business Consulting, Family Wealth Consulting, Wealth Psychology Consulting

Jane Beddall, my good friend and colleague, invited me to be interviewed for her podcast, “Crafting Solutions to Conflict.” You can CLICK HERE to listen to the interview. She and I have been members of a study group in New York City for many years. We present cases and support one another in the challenging profession of helping families work together productively across time and make generational transitions. I find the support of the group invaluable; the range of professional disciplines represented Read more »

Rock Bands and Family Business

May 20, 2019Family Business Consulting, Family Wealth Consulting, Wealth Psychology Consulting

I am a fan of rock music and family business. When I find ways to combine the two, I do so. One of my most popular and best-received workshops for business families and the advisors who serve them uses clips from the Metallica documentary “ Some Kind of Monster ” ( available on Netflix ) to demonstrate the challenges and opportunities of the interplay of family and business. While not blood-related, the Metallica band members exemplify family ties. The emotional intensity of family closeness and the economic, Read more »

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