A couple in their late 60s had done everything right on paper. The estate plan was updated, the trust structures were in place, and their advisors were well coordinated. What kept them up at night wasn’t the legal architecture. The real concern was whether their three adult children were A prepared to receive what was coming.
The children ranged in age from 32 to 42. They had different relationships with money, different levels of financial sophistication, and had never once been included in a serious conversation about the family’s financial picture. The parents weren’t sure how much to share, when to share it, or how to start a conversation that had never been started before.
We began with the parents, helping them articulate what they wanted their wealth to accomplish across generations, not just in legal terms but in terms of values, intentions, and the behaviors they hoped to encourage. That conversation shaped everything that followed.
From there, we met individually with each adult child to understand how they thought about the family’s wealth and what they felt they needed to be prepared. We then facilitated the family’s first formal financial meeting, structured, guided, and focused on shared context rather than specific numbers. Over the following months, we helped the family develop a written values statement, establish a regular meeting cadence, and build a decision-making framework for situations where family assets or shared resources are involved.
We also worked with the estate attorney to create a roadmap for how and when ownership and oversight responsibilities would be introduced to the next generation, so the transition could happen deliberately rather than all at once.
The adult children are now engaged, informed at an appropriate level, and involved in the family’s philanthropic decisions as a first step into broader financial stewardship. The parents have a plan they’re confident in, not just for the assets, but for the people who will one day be responsible for them.
