Governance
Wealth Integration: Bridging the Gap Between Family Wealth, Relationships, Identity and Purpose
Learn how wealth integration helps families align financial wealth with identity, relationships and purpose across generations for healthier decisions and stronger family connection.
Why Your Family Meetings Aren’t Working
Many family meetings fall short because they ignore deeper, systemic conflict. Learn why that happens and how to make your meetings more effective.
How Family Governance Supports Family Harmony
How Family Governance Supports Family HarmonySometimes, “harmony” can be a loaded word for families in business, full of challenges related to its definition and its overall achievability. It’s often confused with avoiding conflict or staying superficially pleasant, but true family harmony isn’t about uniformity or silence. Contrarily, it’s about resilience, relational trust, and a shared willingness to stay in connection, even through disagreement.At Continuity, we see harmony not as the absence of conflict, but as the capacity to address differences in a way that strengthens relationships. This capacity grows when families have both emotional connection and structural clarity, what we [...]
Casting Your Vote: 8 Decision-Making Techniques to Minimize Conflict
Discover 8 decision-making techniques to foster fairness, reduce conflict, and help family businesses make choices that everyone can accept.
How an Owners Council Can Benefit a Family Business
Learn what an owners council is, its key benefits, how it operates, reasons to form one, and how it differs from a family council.
How Family-Owned Businesses Benefit from a Board of Directors
When a family-owned manufacturing business built an independent board and its impact on the company A family-owned manufacturing firm had just finished a six-month family business consulting engagement and now had a basic management and ownership succession plan in place. In addition, a family bank was set up to manage a vacation property, help avoid family conflict over money, and be used as a capital resource for entrepreneurial family members not in the family business. Satisfied with the work done to date, the founder asked, ‘What’s next?’ Editor’s note: Surnames are not disclosed and first names have been changed [...]
The Real Purpose of Family Enterprise Governance: Developing the “Four Capitals”
Nurturing the four types of capital to maximize the potential of your enterprising family. In this commentary, we explore the four types of capital—financial, human, spiritual, and social, and the family enterprise governance system’s crucial role in promoting each of these for the benefit of the family. Family enterprise governance systems may look different for different families. For some families, governance is a highly structured system of a family council, family office board, and a family business board; all connected by a well-crafted constitution with process, rules, and expectations. For other families, family enterprise governance may simply be a [...]
What’s Considered ‘Fair’ in Family Business?
4 things to consider when seeking outcomes that are acceptable to all stakeholders The question of what is fair has perplexed many family business owners, and their search for fairness often results in conflict. Why? Because when it comes to the search for fairness—there is no single answer. The term ‘fairness’ can have different meanings. In business, fairness is based on merit—the more you produce, the more you should earn; when it comes to ownership, fairness is proportional—the more you own, the more benefit of control and distributions of profit you should have; and for families, fairness is often (but [...]
Is Family Governance Necessary for High-Net-Worth Families?
Is Family Governance Necessary for High Net Worth Families? 4 factors that wealth managers and estate advisors should consider for their clients Estimated read time: 4 mins Family governance, in its simplest form, is a structured process for making decisions together as a family. It provides a forum for families to discuss strategic issues like succession planning, financial choices, risks, and more. Governance can be formal, with organized meetings and documents like a family constitution, or informal with casual meetings or a phone call. However, formal family governance is not necessary for every family. We’ve outlined four factors to [...]
8 Steps to Manage Sibling Wealth Disparity
Wealth disparity among siblings can wreak havoc in families—especially when a family business is involved. Unfortunately, it’s all too common for the family enterprise to magnify wealth disparity and worsen issues of entitlement, exclusion and fairness. To nurture and maintain lasting relationships, it is critical to understand and manage sibling wealth disparity. Understanding the Path to Sibling Wealth Disparity As dependents, siblings grow up with similar economic status. Their relationships are forged as equals. As they mature, siblings may take very different paths, with diverse opportunities and challenges that impact their individual wealth [...]
