Approach
How we work with a family.
Every family is different. The way we work is not. We take on a small number of engagements, we work with the family directly, and we hold what we learn in confidence.
The shape of an engagement
Three stages, at the family’s pace.
01
Listen
We begin with conversations, individually and together, across generations and branches of the family. We want to understand what the family believes, not only what it owns.
02
Structure
We help the family agree on how it will decide. Governance documents, boards and councils, shareholder agreements, employment policies, and the forums where hard conversations can happen safely.
03
Stay
Governance is maintained, not installed. We remain counsel to the family as generations change, liquidity arrives and the enterprise evolves.
Governance focus
Governance is how a family decides to stay together.
Good governance separates what the family is from what the family owns. It gives every generation a voice and a process, so that disagreements are settled by the family’s own rules rather than by its loudest member.
- Family constitutions and charters
- Family councils and assemblies
- Board composition for operating and holding companies
- Shareholder agreements and liquidity policies
- Private trust company formation and oversight
- Next-generation education and entry into the enterprise
- Dispute prevention and facilitated resolution
- Separating family governance from business governance
Core principles
What we hold to.
We work for the family as a whole.
Not for one branch or one generation. Our loyalty is to the family’s long-term interest, as the family itself defines it.
Discretion is the default.
We do not publish client names. We do not discuss one family with another. What we learn stays in the room.
We say what we see.
Candour is part of the service. A family hears enough agreement from people who want its business.
Transactions serve the family, not the reverse.
When a sale, purchase or co-investment makes sense, we may help directly, in a non-brokered setting. It is never the point of the engagement.
Few families, by design.
We keep our practice small so that each family has our full attention.
What we have learned
Lessons from inside a family enterprise.
[Draft, from teaching case, Eric to approve]
Build, buy or rent.
Know where the family’s competence ends. Some capabilities should be built inside the family office, some bought, and some rented from trusted advisors.
Selection replaces intervention.
As families move from controlling businesses to co-investing alongside others, the skill that matters is choosing partners well. Reputation becomes the currency.