Family Culture Archives - The Certior Group

Time is Money

May 23, 2020 by Avi Kantor

We’ve all heard the phrase “Time is Money”. This metaphor permeates much of our language and thinking about time. Many of our household and personal gadgets are “time-saving devices”. Sometimes we judge the depth of our commitments and efforts by assessing the “time we have invested”. When someone is struggling with a serious health condition, we say that they’re “living on borrowed time”.

You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.

-Jim Rohn

How we “spend”, “budget”, “leverage”, and “invest” our time are all abstract notions derived from the basic idea that “Time is Money”. So, time has value. But unlike money, we don’t all agree on what that value is. Furthermore, the way we actually use our time belies what we say it means to us.

One of the consequences of our Covid-19 experiences is that we’ve all had our schedules and daily routines disrupted. We’ve had to adjust and use our time differently.

Tell me what you value and I might believe you; but show me your calendar and your bank statement, and I’ll show you what you really value.

-Peter Drucker

If we value our time, how do we actually “spend” it? For some, Covid-19 has created opportunities for more quality time with family members; time spent home-schooling kids, cooking and eating meals together; watching movies, playing board games, and going for walks and hikes. For others, this period of time has been anxiety-producing, leading to negative thoughts, unproductive behavior, and time-wasting.

Habits and fixed behavior patterns; fear of change, fear of the unknown, fear of failure, fear in general; and human laziness are common underlying reasons why we waste time. Former Navy Seal, now author and podcaster Jocko Willink says that “discipline is freedom.” What he means by this is that the discipline to build and maintain skillful practices allow us to better learn, grow, achieve, and help others. In our work, “The Path to Mastery” begins with positive, intentionally-designed daily routines and habits. How might you utilize this Covid-19 era to rethink your routines and habits to better serve yourself and your family? How might you rewire to better optimize your True Wealth?

What Really is Estate Planning?

January 20, 2020 by Avi Kantor

Most lay people would probably respond “wills and trusts.” If you ask professionals who specialize in estate planning, you might get answers like “preserve and protect money and assets for future generations” or “minimizing taxes and maximizing the transfer of assets.” Both perspectives are certainly accurate. But this raises the question, “Why do we do estate planning?” In other words, what are we trying to accomplish when we do estate planning?

If we look at the typical professional approach, it boils down to maximizing the money and wealth transferred and assuming that that will best serve the people involved (i.e., the family). For this article, we’ll call this Approach #1. But if you could read people’s minds, I would speculate that what most people really want is for their family to remember and honor them by capturing and leveraging their lifetime of experiences and wisdom to help their family thrive for generations. We’ll call this Approach #2.

The statistics for Approach #1 are not encouraging. As much as 70% of family wealth is lost by the end of the 2nd generation and over 90% by the end of the third. In other words, all of documents, structures, governance, education, etc. that has historically gone into Approach #1 has resulted in a meager success rate. There’s actually a folk saying for this phenomenon – Shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations.

We believe it makes more sense to “Put People First”; to not let taxes, structures, distributions, etc. drive the estate planning process. We often see that the typical estate planning process “leaves the people behind” because it focuses and prioritizes legal documents, saving taxes, and maximizing asset transfers, etc. Instead, we believe in first building individual, self and social awareness; nurturing emotional intelligence, enhancing communication skills; and setting the conditions for collaboration (Putting the People First). THEN, utilizing the traditional tools and techniques of estate planning to enhance the outcome and serve the people, not the other way around.

Why ultimately do we put people first? In order to optimize multi-generational True Wealth; that is, to help people live happy, fulfilled, meaningful, and joyous lives.

Sustaining Multi-Generational Wealth

July 7, 2019 by Avi Kantor

Garrett Gunderson recently published a provocative article on Forbes.com entitled “How The Ultra-Rich Never Die.”

https://www.forbes.com/sites/garrettgunderson/2019/06/15/how-the-ultra-rich-never-die/

The article’s premise is to invest in future heirs not in traditional investments. What Gunderson means by “invest” is to dedicate time, energy, attention, and resources towards developing the “talents, interests, abilities, and skill sets of those we choose to be the ones who will carry on and benefit from our legacy.” Gunderson’s rationale is that even if these heirs do not grow their inherited financial assets, life insurance can replenish those assets, freeing the heirs to grow as people and contribute to the world. He also touches on core values, traditions, rituals, family retreats, and mission statements. His concluding remark is “invest in people, not products.”

I applaud his focus on people. Traditional multi-generational planning has tended to emphasize legal structures and financial strategies, often to the detriment of the people involved.

Yet, Gunderson’s either/or thinking – that one should “invest” in people, not products – strikes me as somewhat misleading. Shouldn’t it be people AND investments? Without informed wealth management, focusing exclusively on people can become a prescription for undisciplined self-indulgence and waste. True Wealth involves optimizing financial assets to support people and their quest for happiness, joy, fulfillment, and meaning.

“We ultimately ‘live our legacies.’ That is, if we live our lives with high moral and ethical character, we positively influence those around us and the culture of our families. A family culture of high moral and ethical character ultimately will determine if the assets ‘never die.'”

When I look at the challenges of multi-generational True Wealth, I see the opportunity to help family members align around a larger common vision and purpose. In my experience, this means developing leadership character and family culture. As Gunderson suggests, expressing core values, traditions, rituals, retreats, and mission statements are important and necessary. However, these tend to be about external behaviors. I see character and culture as largely internal and about mindset. And I believe that mindset matters.

Finally, when Gunderson says the “Ultra-Rich Never Die”, he means that the assets of the “Ultra-Rich” wealth creators won’t “die” if his or her heirs are well-versed in core values, traditions, rituals, retreats, and mission statements…and buy life insurance. This can be a great overall strategy for some families. In fact, many multi-generational families successfully employ this strategy. I would add that we ultimately “live our legacies.” That is, if we live our lives with high moral and ethical character, we positively influence those around us and the culture of our families. A family culture of high moral and ethical character ultimately will determine if the assets “never die.”

What Will The Future of Family Stewardship Be?

October 1, 2018 by Avi Kantor

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”.

A Few Thoughts on Family Leadership

April 19, 2018 by Avi Kantor

Recently, one of our Certior Group co-collaborators Erik Gabrielson conducted a multi-generation family meeting in Minnesota. Another co-collaborator Ron Nakamoto, assisted Erik and participated as an observer. After reflecting upon the meeting, Ron shared the following thought-provoking observations about family leadership:

It is essential that a multi-generational family come to a collective understanding that sustaining the family, the wellbeing of its members, and its wealth requires leadership and leadership development;
It is advantageous to have a leadership development process; having an outside facilitator can greatly accelerate progress;
Learning specific business skills is important and should be pursued but family members mentoring future family leaders is perhaps more important;
There is a society-wide shift from autocratic to more collaborative family leadership taking place. This shift presents an opportunity to create a form of meritocracy that balances traditional hierarchical organizational leadership with more modern egalitarian ideas. That is, there can be a way to get input from many but still rely on the wisdom and judgement of those who are best-suited to lead to make informed decisions on important matters;
Families must communicate, communicate, communicate if they are to prosper in the future;
It’s important to adopt an entrepreneurial, learn-from-mistakes mindset to address the volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous world we live in.

These thoughts and ideas will undoubtedly inform the ongoing work that we’re doing here at The Certior Group. In addition, Erik plays an integral part in our ongoing Wealth and Wellbeing Community. I’m grateful for the progress we’re making in our efforts to help our colleagues, clients, and community optimize True Wealth.

Avi Kantor

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