Why do some families thrive for generations? What accounts for the sad deterioration that others experience? This book takes families and the professionals who serve them beyond the now widely accepted practices offered in Family Wealth and offers a view of Hughes’s panoramic insights into what makes families flourish and fail. It lays out the basis for the vision of family governance the author has been developing through his work and research. His advice addresses not only what to do but how to think about the complex issues of family governance, growth, and stability and the ongoing challenge of nurturing the happiness of each family member.

Every family hopes to confer advantages that are more than just material and financial-to inculcate character and leadership, to inspire creativity and enterprise, to help all family members find and follow their individual callings, and to avoid the financial dependency and loss of initiative that can all too often be an unwanted consequence of financial success. Yet many families never succeed in realizing that vision, much less sustaining it for three, four, or five generations and beyond.
James Hughes’s teachings synthesize insights from psychology, anthropology, political history, philosophy, economic theory, and the law. His ideas have been taken up by numerous exceptional families, by their advisers, and by scores of authors, practitioners, and academics who have found value in the methods he pioneered.
The first edition of this book became a word-of-mouth classic. Now, Hughes has updated and substantially expanded it with new chapters that challenge conventional notions of wealth and offer guidelines for conserving family assets in the broadest senses. Filled with tested principles and practices for family governance and joint decision making, it is a rich source of workable wisdom that family members can put into practice today, to the enduring benefit and gratitude of future generations.

The gift of giving is at the core of family wealth and with the new estate law allowing up to $5,120,000 in tax-free gifting, the ultra-affluent are faced with the task of giving in the largest amount in estate tax history. Beyond the tax saving and wealth management implications, the act of giving in such a generous amount opens up a slew of new issues for wealthy families, the biggest of which is: how do I prepare the recipient of such a hefty gift? With that question in mind, Hughes, Massenzio, and Whitaker have written Wisdom and Wealth in three main parts: The Who of Giving, The How of Giving, and The What and Why of Giving. The first part deals exclusively with the people most deeply involved in family giving, especially the recipients and givers (parents, grandparents, spouses, trustees). The second part, The How of Giving, addresses the delicate balance of givers who want to maintain some level of control and recipients who want some level of freedom in accepting and growing the gift. The final part, The What and Why of Giving describes various types of gifts, from money to business interests to values and rituals. The authors also introduce their family bank concept as a model that combines loans, trusts, and outright gifts. It embodies a framework and set of practices for long-term family growth.

One of the greatest sources of pain within families with wealth is the belief that there are no choices. Sometimes even wealth creators who feel more than able in their business lives feel at the same time that their wealth will inevitably become a pernicious influence on their children and grandchildren. The next generation must awaken to the problem of treating financial wealth as more important than it is and therefore not developing a sense of self separate from the wealth. The book will: Explain the challenge that wealth poses to rising generationsthe challenge of silence Discuss the rising generations and what their future might look like Share strategies that help members of the rising generation find their voices The Voice of the Rising Generation will discuss the successors of family wealth and what they can do to keep focused on human capital rather than putting too much emphasis to the role of financial wealth.