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Family Success Stories

The Mountain Family
Family Coaching: A Before and After Look at One Family

The Mountain Family—like 70% of all high net worth families—had the odds stacked against them as they prepared to transfer their estate to the next generation. 

Readiness Assessment
Concerned about their heirs’ readiness to manage their wealth, Mountain family members each completed the Family-wide Readiness Survey, an assessment tool offered by the Institute for Preparing Heirs. This comprehensive anonymous questionnaire measures a family’s level of preparedness for successful wealth transfer. Individual responses are kept anonymous to avoid challenges and ensure the highest degree of candor.
 
The “pre-coaching” bar graph below illustrates the results based upon the Mountain Family responses. Family members who responded to the Family-wide Readiness Survey are labeled A through F across the bottom of the graph. The graph represents pre-transition and pre-coaching responses of the parents, children and spouses. The survey measured three major aspects:

• Trust and communication (T&C)
• Heir preparedness (Heirs)
• Clarity of the mission for their family wealth (Mission)

In order to indicate an acceptable level of “preparedness” to manage the family wealth post-transition©, scores must exceed 3.5 for all family members in each of the three categories. This would indicate that the entire family assessed the family as having the skills and relationships in place to function well in the post-transition environment.

Clearly, everyone in the Mountain family felt unprepared for the coming estate transition, even the parents, rating their need for assistance as relatively urgent. This led to a prediction that, upon transition, there was likely to be litigation, a breakdown in the family unity, and loss of assets. Their internal lack of trust in one another was literally preventing any progress in preparing themselves for the post-transition responsibilities. Unable to learn from one another and from outside sources, no one was willing to declare him/herself a “beginner.” They had erected their own set of obstacles to learning, preparation, and improvement of the family’s odds for a successful transition.

Clear Call For Action
These findings, combined with subsequent individual interviews, pointed out the need for immediate action on the part of the family. With assistance from The Williams Group highly skilled family coaches, the parents called a family meeting, scheduled a series of meetings over the upcoming year, and relied upon skilled family coaches for guidance. As a unit, the family went to work on clearly identifying the mission for the family’s wealth. The parents were surprised to discover how many values were shared among their heirs, even in the context of mistrust that hovered over the gathered family. The family then turned to the coaching team and began work on building bridges of trust and communication within the family, dramatically improving their ability to talk with and help one another. Finally, they turned to the task of preparing the heirs. Moving on to the analysis of heir interests, then to the evaluation of competencies, and finally to the development of individualized programs and individual mentors for each heir. After a concerted family effort in the series of six two-day meetings over a 20-month span, the post-coaching results showed a remarkably improved picture.

The Selby Family
How "Soft-Side" Issues Impact the "Hard Side" Options Involving Real Money

The Selby family was struggling with their $40 million estate and its transition to their three children. All their children were married, pre-nuptial agreements had been executed with their spouses and grandchildren were appearing regularly. Yet the family remained completely in the dark as to the size of the estate, what was expected of them, how they could possibly please their business-building parents, and a host of other issues that kept them at odds, worrying their parents. After reading the highly acclaimed book, Preparing Heirs by Roy Williams and Vic Preisser, the parents decided to take action.

Family Wealth Mission Statement
After the first two family meetings, helped along by professional coaching from The Williams Group, the family reached agreement on a Family Wealth Mission Statement. This defined the long-term purpose for their wealth. The parents made disclosures about their estate and substantially raised the level of trust and communication within the family. 

Role Of Professional Advisors
At first, the professional advisors were unanimously opposed to the necessary revisions in the estate documents to conform the estate plans to the new Mission Statement. Wills and trusts had been designed specifically to protect against sibling encroachment, spousal meddling and dilution of parental intentions. After intensive discussions with The Williams Group coaches, the professional advisors realized that the family was their client, not just the parents.

They also realized that with an increased level of internal knowledge and trust within the family, that certain additional structural "risks" could be taken.

Family Values And Estate Value Enhanced
Modifications to the documents took place with the following impact on the parents and the heirs:

• Parental lifestyle was not diminished or put at risk
• Over $7 million in estate taxes were immediately avoided
• Spousal income was doubled, with no change in the pre-nuptial agreements and no ceding of control or interest shares
• The children turned to the advisors for their estate planning

Contact us to find out how well prepared your family is for wealth transfer.