Buy These for Long Term Family Wealth Preservation
Family Money Values blog and site will both publish frequent ‘best buy’ type articles intended to share with you products we like and use. Ones that we hope will move your family use your values to keep your family’s wealth and well being for generations to come as well as make your life easier.
This post will share some of my favorite books on growing your family’s desire to accumulate wealth across generations. If no one in the family wants to look forward a generation or two, you may as well spend all that hard earned money on yourself or your favorite charity!
The book that caused Family Money Values to be born.
As you probably know through my writings, hubby and I started out poor, saved and earned, and finally broke through some financial barriers. As my kids passed through high school, college and then started out on their own, I wondered how we could prepare them for whatever inheritance we might leave, without ruining their lives forever. One day, as I was browsing the financial aisle in the public library looking for information on the topic, I found the book Strategy for the Wealthy Family: Seven Principles to Assure Riches to Riches Across Generations.
He had me at the intro, when he wrote:
“There is a discreet world of the respected super-rich, where family legacies, high-return investments, successful family businesses, philanthropic endeavors, and protective trust practices have been refined and have evolved to reach the highest levels of excellence in private wealth management. These practices and strategies have been employed to build and protect great family fortunes across generations in many countries around the world.”
I wanted to know what these practices and strategies are, and had never even considered looking past our next generation at that point. I checked that book right out, read through it rapidly and later purchased a copy. I frequently refer to it yet today.
Mark Haynes Daniell is a former director of Bain & Company (an investment management consulting firm which had a connection to Mitt Romney at one point) and Wasserstein Perella, an investement bank that was a training ground for a lot of financial leaders. He currently chairs his own family’s office – the Cuscaden group in Singapore. He has worked with many wealthy families.
The Cuscaden Group works to help wealthy family leaders to set up their legacy plans and investment strategies.
The book that spiked my interest in legacy.
Daniell, in partnership with Sara S. Hamilton – the founder and CEO of Family Office Exchange (FOX) also wrote another book which I own and have read multiple times.
It is called Family Legacy and Leadership: Preserving True Family Wealth in Challenging Times (Wiley Finance) and it delves into things like how to develop family leaders, what qualities they need and what purpose they serve. It discusses how to build a lasting legacy, defining a clear philosophy of family wealth and talks about things legacy families do: such as sending future leaders to global business schools, encouraging groups of cousins to travel together to build relationships and look for future investment opps and establishing a family presence in far away markets.
It is also a beneficial read and I refer back to it frequently as well. It is harder than you think to get busy Gen X parents to commit to developing a lasting family legacy!
Daniell Books I Want!
A few more of his books that are on my personal wish list (I haven’t had the opportunity to read these yet are:
Wealth Wisdom for Everyone: An Easy-To-Use Guide to Personal Financial Planning And Wealth
Although at first this sounds like a basic personal finance primer, it goes into some interesting investments – including gold and commodities, arts and antiques and private equity.
World of Risk: A New Approach to Global Strategy and Leadership
Daniell’s education is awesome and includes graduation from the Philips Exeter Academy, Amherst College, the Sorbonne, the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris, Oxford University (University College), and the Harvard Law School, where he received his Juris Doctor Degree.
The book that caused me to develop the Long Term Family Wealth Plan Checklist.
Another author who focuses on family wealth is James E. Hughes.
My copy of Family Wealth–Keeping It in the Family: How Family Members and Their Advisers Preserve Human, Intellectual, and Financial Assets for Generations is well read. This book is the one that gave me the idea to start working on my family’s 100 year wealth plan and as a consequence of those ideas and activities, I created a tool for you – the free Long Term Wealth Planning Checklist ebook available on Family Money Values.com.
We are making very slow progress on our long term plan and sometimes I get discouraged. When I do, I refer back to this book to reflect and refresh my energy on the subject.
He lays out the importance and process of building a family mission and gives the reader tools to evaluate the readiness of the next generation to receive the wealth. He also stresses the importance of storytelling and lays out his view of the roles that Grandparents, elders, aunts and uncles should play in the 100 year plan.
My next James E. Hughes read.
On my wish list from Hughes is Family: The Compact Among Generations (Bloomberg). According to reviews I’ve read, this takes Family Wealth one step further to lay out designs and educational programs to help get those next generation of family leaders up to snuff.
Hughes also has impressive credentials which include those described on his website
“He is a member of the Board of Prescott College, a Counselor to the Family Office Exchange, an emeritus member of the Board of The Philanthropic Initiative; an emeritus faculty member of the Institute for Private Investors; a retired member of the Board of the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation, and a retired member of the Board of the Rocky Mountain Institute. He is a member of boards of various private trust companies, an advisor to numerous investment institutions, a member of a number of private philanthropic boards, and a member of the editorial boards of various professional journals. Mr. Hughes was a partner of the law firms of Coudert Brothers and Jones, Day, Reavis and Pogue. He is a graduate of the Far Brook School, which teaches through the Arts, The Pingry School, Princeton University and The Columbia School of Law. He is one of the thirteen founders of the Collaboration for Family Flourishing; recipient of the Private Asset Management Lifetime Achievement Award, the Ackerman Institute Family Partner Award and the Family Office Exchange Founders Award. “
If you are interested in long term family wealth, I truly think you will get benefit from the above books. If you have adult children, they might benefit as well. Why not make them a Christmas gift?
I must let you know, that if you do click on the title links for these books, you will go to Amazon. If you make a purchase, Family Money will get a small commission from that sale, which is used to help keep this blog and it’s site up and running.
Have you read any of these books yet? What are your thoughts on them, if so?
