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What Will The Future of Family Stewardship Be?

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In the late 20th century, the United States Army War College created the acronym VUCA to describe the conditions that would exist after the disintegration of the Soviet Union. The acronym stands for volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. The term has caught on with the military and, especially, in business, describing the general conditions that exist today in nearly every aspect of our daily lives: technology, culture, politics, economics, etc. Massive changes, simultaneous opportunities for greater abundance as well as disruption of our way of life, are the order of the day.

As science and technology inexorably advance, there may soon come a day when sophisticated tax, legal, accounting, financial, and other technical information and strategies will be widely available on demand to the general public at an affordable price. We will also face unprecedented disruptions in our traditional patterns of work, career development, family dynamics, aging, and retirement.[1] Perhaps these trends will eventually lead to a world where artificial intelligence, “big data”, and algorithms know us so well that our most sophisticated multi-generational planning is automated and personalized.[2]

With the inexorable advance of technology and its dominance in our everyday lives, what will the future of family stewardship planning be?

Charles H. Green, the author of the book “The Trusted Advisor” says:

“People rarely give over their trust to institutions; really, they trust other people…While companies are often described as credible and reliable…it’s really the people within the companies that make those companies what they are.”

The Trusted Advisor

In a rapidly changing VUCA world, we do our best to foster participation and engagement in experiences where people are in conversations with other people. We view our role as guiding people down the path of discovery through these experiences and conversations. The practice of Gratitude especially has, in our experience, transformed people’s experience of wealth and their experiences of other family members, making them more aware of their common bonds and shared values.

Stewardship involves building and developing leadership in future generations and committing to ethical excellence in the way we lead our lives and families. Stewardship and family leadership also involves intentionally being aware of and nurturing sustainable family culture (the traditions, rituals, ceremonies, and unspoken ways that families do things, interact, as well as the expectations that go with these activities). Family culture is often a missing element in trust and estate planning, especially when governance and structure are the primary emphasis in the planning process. We view this as our opportunity to make a difference in the effectiveness of the planning process, regardless of the state of the world, technology, or existing relationships with other advisors.

[1] “Reimagining Maturity”, Ken Dychtwald, American Society on Aging Annual Conference, General Session Keynote address, March 23, 2015.

[2] Peter Diamandis and Ray Kurzweil, Abundance 360, Livestream, September 14, 2018. During this video broadcast Kurzweil and Diamandis speculated that such capabilities might become widely available within the next 10 to 15 years because of what Kurzweil calls “the law of accelerating returns”.

3 Lessons from Thurman Munson

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Thurman Munson was an All-Star catcher for the New York Yankees in the 1970’s. He was one of only 4 catchers in Major League Baseball history to win a Rookie of the Year Award, a Most Valuable Player Award, a Golden Glove Award for fielding, and a World Series title during his career. Tragically, in 1979, at the peak of his career, he died when he crashed while piloting his own private jet.

Munson had purchased the jet a year before the crash so that he could fly himself home as frequently as possible from New York to Canton, OH where his family lived. He was still taking flying lessons when the crash occurred.

Thurman Munson

Thurman Munson died from the injuries he suffered during that crash. He was 32 years old. He was survived by his wife and three children. The New York Yankees, the defending World Series Champions from 1978, finished fourth that season. They would not win another championship for 18 years.

There are many lessons to be gleaned from this story. Here are three that come to mind for me:

It’s one thing to buy a jet (actually and metaphorically); it’s another thing to fly it. By analogy, many of our clients “buy” sophisticated financial and legal (trust, estate, tax, and corporate) structures. And by analogy, we’ve made it our focus to facilitate collaboration among other high-level professionals and oversee the operation of these complex financial and legal strategies.

Despite our good intentions, there are unintended consequences to the things we choose to do. We intend to do good things with and for our family, friends, and colleagues. But are we ignoring risks that will permanently impact those around us?

We cannot delegate our presence. There were multi-million-dollar lawsuits and settlements as a result of the Munson crash. But the money could never replace Thurman Munson as the New York Yankee’s catcher, the husband, and the father of three children. Our contributions to others are important and valuable; perhaps more valuable than we fully realize.

Wyoming Private Single Family Trust Companies Allow Families to Self Govern over Multiple Generations

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The so-called paradox of freedom is the argument that freedom in the sense of absence of any constraining control must lead to very great restraint, since it makes the bully free to enslave the meek.

– Karl R. Popper

For a family that can self-govern effectively over multiple generations, a Wyoming private single family trust company is a unique, perhaps even optimal, legal and administrative structure. While the legal and regulatory environment in Wyoming is very favorable for families who create private single family trust companies, the key factor is the ability of the family to self-govern over an extended period of time.

Private Single Family Trust Company Information

We, like all other organizations that serve trust clients, want to make sure that appropriate governance, standard operating procedures, and rules of ethics are created and implemented by client families. What’s often overlooked, however, are the cultural influences that bind a family together. That’s why we pay special attention to the ideas, concepts, and tools of Empowered Wealth. Beginning with Gratitude as a fundamental part of a family’s mindset, Empowered Wealth pays close attention to capturing and capitalizing the stories, rituals, ceremonies, and traditions that are foundational to a family’s culture and its True Wealth. Add to this the Certior Group’s perspective that True Wealth Stewardship is the goal of family leadership, I think you can see that our mission isn’t to promote private single family trust companies; it’s to support thriving families and family members who are living happy, fulfilled and meaningful lives.

Avi Kantor

Our True Wealth Design Process

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Encouraging rigorous, constructive debate is indispensable to navigating challenges of high uncertainty, from extending the bounds of knowledge to scaling a business. Argument is “how we come to understand things,” observes (David) Krakauer, a tough and contentious critic who sees (Santa Fe Institute’s) role as a crucible, a place where ideas are put to the test. “I believe in freedom and I believe in community. I also believe in rigor and…challenging nonsense.” Many companies, however, develop cultural and procedural barriers to productive debate, valuing organizational harmony over innovation. The challenge is to find the balance: to foster an environment where people feel comfortable sharing — and arguing — the merits of different perspectives”.

– Robert C. Wolcott

The Certior Group True Wealth Design Process is an important difference between our firm and most other wealth management and financial services firms that we’re aware of. It really comes down to the spirit of collaboration among advisers and a true client-first approach to our work. By collaboration, we mean healthy respect for other advisers and intense debate in order to co-create solutions for clients.

Collaboration Article

Before we begin debating and creating solutions, one of the first things we do for clients is to help them get organized. Nothing is more frustrating for a client and their advisers than to have too much data and information scattered in too many places for anyone to keep track of, let alone manage effectively. We take advantage of the excellent technology that’s currently available in order to create a personalized dashboard for our clients. This sets the conditions under which high-level collaboration and planning can occur. Please contact us at info@certiorgroup.com for more detailed information on how we can help you get organized, plan, and succeed with our unique tools and processes.

Our True Wealth Design Process

Avi Kantor

Comparing States for Private Trust Company Situs

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In the end, our investigation’s endorsement of Wyoming made family members comfortable knowing that, even though traveling to Wyoming might not be the most convenient place to meet, it’s a situs that works best for them.”

– Anonymous

Recently, the Family Office Exchange published an article that described one family’s thought process as they evaluated various states as the potential new situs for their private trust company.

Comparing States for Private Trust Company Situs

For many of the same reasons that we at The Certior Group believe that Wyoming Single Family Trust Companies are a good fit for many families, this family decided to remain in Wyoming, despite the apparent inconvenience that traveling to Jackson imposed on the family.

The Certior Group website is a very good source for information on private family trust companies and Wyoming’s advantages over other states from a legal and tax standpoint. See why Wyoming is a  Unique True Wealth Environment.

Avi Kantor

The CERTIOR Group, LLC

The Certior Group, LLC.

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