Family Archives - The Certior Group

Jackson Institute for Wealth and Wellbeing Wilderness Adventure

August 20, 2018 by Avi Kantor

Continuing our efforts to develop “The Jackson Institute for Wealth and Wellbeing”, a small group of us experienced a unique wilderness adventure in August. Led once again by Jackson resident, botanist, educator, and outdoor adventure guide Trevor Bloom, we hiked, camped, and fished in a remote, private, permit-only area outside of Jackson.

Jackson Institute for Wealth and Wellbeing Wilderness Adventure

What was so special about this particular hiking, camping, and fishing experience (after all, aren’t such experiences commonplace in Jackson)? Inspired by our vision for the institute, we were exploring how we might capture and capitalize on the abundance surrounding us in Jackson to facilitate and create experiences for families and family leaders; experiences that might elevate joy, connections, and gratitude; experiences that might foster curiosity, wonder, and imagination.

The next Jackson Institute for Wealth and Wellbeing community learning events will be held later in September. Together we will build a platform to gain clarity and be intentional achieving a life well-lived and creating the impact we desire. You will:

Be introduced to breakthrough learning techniques;
Experience how Gratitude can transform negative experiences into positive outlooks; and
Learn how to turn life experiences into learning opportunities and positive outcomes.

Please contact us info@certiorgroup.com to RSVP.

3 Lessons from Thurman Munson

July 23, 2018 by Avi Kantor

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.

Growth Through Shared Learning

July 1, 2018 by Avi Kantor

In May, David Quinn and I attended an Empowered Wealth event that featured this experience led by our colleague Erik Gabrielson:

One of the things that we realized from participating in this experience is that we can help people here in Jackson by creating unique, shared, learning experiences. Done thoughtfully, these experiences can become powerful growth and connection opportunities for members of our Wealth and Wellbeing community and their families, friends, and business colleagues.

Navigating Your Family to a Prosperous Future

May 28, 2018 by Avi Kantor

At a recent conference, a prominent East Coast trust and estate attorney stated that he has mixed feelings about family meetings. He went on to explain that in his experience, attempts to conduct productive family meetings often dissolve into acrimony and bitter attempts by older, more powerful family members to dictate the thoughts and actions of the rest of the family.

The conversation then shifted to Family Mission Statements and “Constitutions” – that is, documents that layout ideal visions, sets of core values, and ironclad rules for the family to follow at the risk of dire consequences for non-compliance. Fortuitously, this discussion gave David Quinn and me an opportunity to shift the focus of the conference from external ways to control the future behavior of family members to more intrinsic ways that families might navigate towards a prosperous and sustainable future.

If you’ve participated in any of our events, you know that we emphasize gratitude, “True Wealth (a holistic view of wealth and well-being), and family leadership as the primary drivers for people as they seek happiness, fulfillment, and meaning for themselves and their families. A family culture that lives gratitude, “True Wealth”, and leadership, we believe, gives a family the best chance of thriving for multiple generations. As the Certior Group, our most exciting opportunity is to accelerate progress of all of our stakeholders in all of these areas through experiential learning and the support of the Wealth and Well-being community we’re building.

Family meetings are part – but not the only part – of building family culture. These meetings and the estate and trust planning process often overlook the powerful role that intentional leadership and the thoughtful building of an optimal family culture play in sustaining a family. Elevating family culture is what we hope to cultivate through our community-building efforts, our experiential learning events, as well the work we do with our clients.

Building family culture is an art. Guiding and mentoring family members as they become leaders can be challenging. That’s why I’m so excited about about the experiences and the learning that we’ll share in the future and the Certior community that’s emerging here in Jackson.

Multi-generational Family Leadership

May 1, 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.

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