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Family Wealth: Keeping It in the Family--How Family Members and Their Advisers Preserve Human, Intellectual, and Financial Assets for Generations
The landmark book that changed the way exceptional families think about their heritage, their wealth, and their legacy to future generations-- now revised and expanded.
Every family, looking at the next generation, 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 has thought deeply about these challenges, and his insights are at once practical and profound. For more than three decades, he has personally guided multiple generations of families in creating strategies to preserve their human and intellectual capital as well as their financial assets. His teachings synthesize insights from psychology, anthropology, political history, philosophy, economic theory, and the law, with examples ranging from Aristotle to cutting-edge social science theory. 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, privately published, 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.
Every family, looking at the next generation, 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 has thought deeply about these challenges, and his insights are at once practical and profound. For more than three decades, he has personally guided multiple generations of families in creating strategies to preserve their human and intellectual capital as well as their financial assets. His teachings synthesize insights from psychology, anthropology, political history, philosophy, economic theory, and the law, with examples ranging from Aristotle to cutting-edge social science theory. 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, privately published, 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.
256 pages, Hardcover
Published June 1, 2004
83 people are currently reading
1812 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews
July 16, 2012
Thoughtful, practical and well structured. A comprehensive guide to building real wealth - not just money; but human capital (people), intellectual capital (ideas) as well as financial capital. No hype, just sensible and well reasoned principles. It's designed for a US market, but the concepts are easily transferable. Also has one of the best descriptions of effective mentoring I've come across.
June 23, 2019
I read this book for work so it was not a pleasure read but it was very informative and gave me a lot of good thinking points to incorporate into my legal practice. I would only recommend reading if you are an attorney, a trustee, a grantor, or the beneficiary of a trust. It’s not an easy read and some of the chapters are hard to get through but it is does explain a lot in layman terms. I really liked the idea of families growing over generations into a tribe. It helps make the long-term thinking needed for successful family wealth development a little easier to comprehend.
Favorite Quotes:
1. It should be our hope that the care and thoughtfulness we bring to our decision making today will be remembered and honored by our descendants seven generations from today. (Iroquois Proverb, multiple pages.)
Rate Procedure:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - I loved the book so much I would reread it again and would recommend to a friend.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - Thoroughly enjoyed the book, could not put it down, would recommend to a friend, but do not need to read again.
⭐️⭐️⭐️ - Probably a good book that I enjoyed but there was something about it I did not love (e.g. The writing style, the POV, etc.). I would only recommend to a friend if it was their "type" of book.
⭐️⭐️ - A book I have below average feelings for and it would not come with a recommendation from me but I would mention it in conversation if related to the book topic at issue.
⭐️ - I finished the book but I hated every second of it.
Favorite Quotes:
1. It should be our hope that the care and thoughtfulness we bring to our decision making today will be remembered and honored by our descendants seven generations from today. (Iroquois Proverb, multiple pages.)
Rate Procedure:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - I loved the book so much I would reread it again and would recommend to a friend.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - Thoroughly enjoyed the book, could not put it down, would recommend to a friend, but do not need to read again.
⭐️⭐️⭐️ - Probably a good book that I enjoyed but there was something about it I did not love (e.g. The writing style, the POV, etc.). I would only recommend to a friend if it was their "type" of book.
⭐️⭐️ - A book I have below average feelings for and it would not come with a recommendation from me but I would mention it in conversation if related to the book topic at issue.
⭐️ - I finished the book but I hated every second of it.
May 10, 2013
It is rare that I read consecutively two books on precisely the same narrow subject. But I did....and I have the same feeling about Family Wealth as I did about Family Fortunes. The book was well written; however, little of it applied to families with limited wealth accumulation. Both books went a long way towards turning the family into a business, which for some families might be a wise, profitable and even necessary move. But only to the those much wealthier than I. On the positive side, I still enjoyed the book. And, most importantly, it did convince me of the means to begin planning our families financial future into the next generation.
Read
January 8, 2026“In our modern times, it is my experience that rarely are these important changes in the lives of boys and girls recognized as other than purely physical events. To be sure, the women of a family usually give certain advice and some ritual and ceremony to girls as they grow into women. Perhaps it is because women's ways of knowing and teaching serve the female development process better. Girls do seem to become women in the full psychological sense of adulthood more easily and more rapidly than boys become men. What I do know from my own practice, however, and anecdotally from many colleagues, is that I and they have many forty- and fifty-year-old boys as clients. I assure you I am not being jocular about this subject, dismissing it as an amusing quirk, as society does in saying that all men are really little boys inside. Unfortunately, it is my direct experience that our society is producing many males who never become men except in the biological sense.
What, you may ask, is my definition of a man? It is quite simply an adult male who is absolutely prepared to accept accountability for his actions, who is ready to say ‘I am responsible for my actions no matter what.’ He is a person who does not blame others for his choices and who does not play the victim.”
literally awesome
What, you may ask, is my definition of a man? It is quite simply an adult male who is absolutely prepared to accept accountability for his actions, who is ready to say ‘I am responsible for my actions no matter what.’ He is a person who does not blame others for his choices and who does not play the victim.”
literally awesome
March 20, 2022
Very interesting perspective on what it takes to sustain family wealth over multiple generations. Hughes skips the typical planners "up and to the right" compound growth charts and focuses on the human elements required to actually make wealth last beyond three generations (citing the "shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations" proverb).
It is somewhat abstract (as all things dealing with people tend to be... "squishy" compared to pure finance/numbers/math). But Hughes provided a number of good mental models, techniques, and "hints" for the rest to further dig into. Favorites:
* Types of capital: refocus the mission as building human and intellectual capital foremost, with financial capital playing a support role. And now critical this is to maintaining family wealth and financial capital into the future.
* (Non) secrets: openly address things that are commonly known but pretended to be secrets (alcohol or drug addictions, contentious relationships, etc)
* The hat trick: literal hats to denote different roles individuals wear in the family and hints at exercises to help improve empathy and understanding across the family of each role
* Mission statements: family and person personal, trying to align on shared values
* Do not be committed to outcomes (in family meetings). Don't let the short term override the long term
* Timelines: "20 years is short term, 50 years is medium term, 100 years is long term"
* Never start a sentence with "but"
* Family stories: bonds the family together. Recounted by different folks at each meeting
* Personal resumes: annually updated. What are they doing, what are they interested in, what are their common goals... Expression of passions. Everything a best friend might know. 15 minutes each. Include list of mentors
* Family "balance sheet" - human resources inventories. This captures changes in in human and intellectual capital too. Used the time periods above. Liabilities: failure of governance, short term thinking, death divorce addiction secrets, short term investment program if less than 50 years, Matthias law (geometric increase in number of family members), taking less than a seventh generational view
* Family "income statement" - measure increase or decrease in human and intellectual capital over the year. Personal resumes here.
* Goal is for every family member to become self-aware and free. Pursuit of individual happiness.
* 105 exercise - look back from age 105 and envision what you think would be important to you
* Family in 20 years - visualize it and share
* Family history - success and failures, what we've learned
* Governance structure: representative democracy, annual family meeting is "Congress" and rule makers. Family council is executive branch, handles trustees and administration. Council of Elders is judicial, handling disputes and telling stories (precedents)
* Investor Allocation: younger family members should invest in the high growth opportunities (minimum taxes, avoid estate tax, long growth timelines, old people want income) but older family members have the money. Need to start gifting early to make allocation across the family better. Grandparents use bonds as collateral for younger members for grandkids borrowing for venture capital investment.
* Family Bank - Both for investment - to increase family's financial and intellectual capital. Or enhancement - to increase the family's intellectual and human capital (goal: increase independence of individual family members. Application: how does this increase your independence and grow family's intellectual capital? Like Rothschild's.. repay loans but low interest, no profit share, but required sons to share info across banks). For investor Allocation, loans from older too younger members for high growth investment opportunities. Also didn't have to follow the "prudent investor" rule like most trusts, so can invest in family startups, businesses, etc. Family Bank is primarily to share intellectual capital... teaches financial education, different kinds of loans, how business works, etc. Should be an informal institution to be private and unregulated. High risk, low interest lender. Trustees need to agree to be involved in Family Bank.
* Grandchild-Grandparent philanthropy: have grandkids choose investment oops, make pitches, show values, etc. Start small ($50 or $100) and stay simple, like DAF. All grandkids age 6+ (even as adults)....bonds the generation and they're all beneficiaries equally, so older mentors the younger. 12+ year olds investment and admin committee - learn business, transferable to . All grandchildren and grandparents form grants committee. All kids 6+ can propose and advocate a grant request. Every kid should make a grant every year. Written material, site visit, director interview, oral presentation. Older children may be requested to put "skin in the game"... volunteer or add their own money. Parents are excluded to promote grand-bonds.
* Trustee is representative of beneficiary
* Trustees main job is educating and mentoring beneficiaries to prepare them to receive their trust proceeds. Like regency in monarchies, a regent rules in the would-be king's stead while teaching them so that they're prepared to be king when the reach the age of majority.
* Protectors: mediate trustee and beneficiary disputes
Goal: avoid remittance dependence and addiction. No life of leisure.
It is somewhat abstract (as all things dealing with people tend to be... "squishy" compared to pure finance/numbers/math). But Hughes provided a number of good mental models, techniques, and "hints" for the rest to further dig into. Favorites:
* Types of capital: refocus the mission as building human and intellectual capital foremost, with financial capital playing a support role. And now critical this is to maintaining family wealth and financial capital into the future.
* (Non) secrets: openly address things that are commonly known but pretended to be secrets (alcohol or drug addictions, contentious relationships, etc)
* The hat trick: literal hats to denote different roles individuals wear in the family and hints at exercises to help improve empathy and understanding across the family of each role
* Mission statements: family and person personal, trying to align on shared values
* Do not be committed to outcomes (in family meetings). Don't let the short term override the long term
* Timelines: "20 years is short term, 50 years is medium term, 100 years is long term"
* Never start a sentence with "but"
* Family stories: bonds the family together. Recounted by different folks at each meeting
* Personal resumes: annually updated. What are they doing, what are they interested in, what are their common goals... Expression of passions. Everything a best friend might know. 15 minutes each. Include list of mentors
* Family "balance sheet" - human resources inventories. This captures changes in in human and intellectual capital too. Used the time periods above. Liabilities: failure of governance, short term thinking, death divorce addiction secrets, short term investment program if less than 50 years, Matthias law (geometric increase in number of family members), taking less than a seventh generational view
* Family "income statement" - measure increase or decrease in human and intellectual capital over the year. Personal resumes here.
* Goal is for every family member to become self-aware and free. Pursuit of individual happiness.
* 105 exercise - look back from age 105 and envision what you think would be important to you
* Family in 20 years - visualize it and share
* Family history - success and failures, what we've learned
* Governance structure: representative democracy, annual family meeting is "Congress" and rule makers. Family council is executive branch, handles trustees and administration. Council of Elders is judicial, handling disputes and telling stories (precedents)
* Investor Allocation: younger family members should invest in the high growth opportunities (minimum taxes, avoid estate tax, long growth timelines, old people want income) but older family members have the money. Need to start gifting early to make allocation across the family better. Grandparents use bonds as collateral for younger members for grandkids borrowing for venture capital investment.
* Family Bank - Both for investment - to increase family's financial and intellectual capital. Or enhancement - to increase the family's intellectual and human capital (goal: increase independence of individual family members. Application: how does this increase your independence and grow family's intellectual capital? Like Rothschild's.. repay loans but low interest, no profit share, but required sons to share info across banks). For investor Allocation, loans from older too younger members for high growth investment opportunities. Also didn't have to follow the "prudent investor" rule like most trusts, so can invest in family startups, businesses, etc. Family Bank is primarily to share intellectual capital... teaches financial education, different kinds of loans, how business works, etc. Should be an informal institution to be private and unregulated. High risk, low interest lender. Trustees need to agree to be involved in Family Bank.
* Grandchild-Grandparent philanthropy: have grandkids choose investment oops, make pitches, show values, etc. Start small ($50 or $100) and stay simple, like DAF. All grandkids age 6+ (even as adults)....bonds the generation and they're all beneficiaries equally, so older mentors the younger. 12+ year olds investment and admin committee - learn business, transferable to . All grandchildren and grandparents form grants committee. All kids 6+ can propose and advocate a grant request. Every kid should make a grant every year. Written material, site visit, director interview, oral presentation. Older children may be requested to put "skin in the game"... volunteer or add their own money. Parents are excluded to promote grand-bonds.
* Trustee is representative of beneficiary
* Trustees main job is educating and mentoring beneficiaries to prepare them to receive their trust proceeds. Like regency in monarchies, a regent rules in the would-be king's stead while teaching them so that they're prepared to be king when the reach the age of majority.
* Protectors: mediate trustee and beneficiary disputes
Goal: avoid remittance dependence and addiction. No life of leisure.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 20, 2009
Really good book on keeping and optimizing family wealth - with an emphasis on maximizing the ability of all members to find and follow their dreams. He emphasizes human and intellectual capital over financial capital, and gives great strategies for families to work together to retain and increase all three. Highly recommended.
November 4, 2014
I particularly appreciate how this book viewed family wealth beyond just financial assets, including what the author considered the most valuable family assets - human & intellectual. I would consider this a must read for anyone considering establishing a long-term trust to provide resources supporting family benefactors.
December 22, 2019
«Возьмемся за дело здесь и сейчас – с надеждой, что принятое нами решение одобрят члены нашего племени, наши потомки в седьмом поколении» (Джеймс Хьюз цитирует мудрость племени Ирокезов)
Книга «Богатство семьи. Как сохранить в семье человеческий, интеллектуальный и финансовый капиталы» - это прежде всего династический взгляд на семью. Джеймс Хьюз проводит параллель между понятием «долгосрочность» в общепринятом понимании и для «семей с капиталом» (в том числе и для семейного бизнеса):
«Если рассматривать семейную стратегию инвестиций за двадцати-, пятидесяти- и столетний периоды, на первый план выступает терпение, которому обязаны успехом такие выдающиеся инвесторы, как Филип Кэррет и Уоррен Баффетт. Терпение полезно, чем бы ни занималась семья. В отличие от большинства инвесторов, время работает на семьи, поставившие перед собой цель долгосрочного сохранения финансового капитала. И наоборот, неумение воспользоваться временем приводит к потере ценных семейных активов»
Выбор семьи в пользу долгосрочности – основная идея книги. Возможно именно это добавляет величия и ответственности к восприятию ее содержания. Это прежде всего работа с обучением и наставничеством внутри семьи. Поиск себя, не отвергая поддержки близких.
Интересно рассуждение автора о благотворительности, как средстве испытания себя в семейном бизнесе (вместо того, чтобы сразу окунаться в проблему долговременного сохранения капитала). «Благотворительность – первое и, вероятно, фундаментальное проявление личных и семейных ценностей. Если программа действий семьи декларирует эти ценности, филантропия доказывает их на практике»
Как и многие читатели, подтвержу, что описание основных принципов взаимодействия семей с трастовыми фондами в книге начинается со 2-й части «Семейные обычаи» и продолжается до ее конца (книга из 4-х частей) с теми или иными отступлениями, актуальными и для России. В любом случае, было интересно узнать чуть больше об этом инструменте. Бессрочный траст отмечен автором в негативном ключе с упоминанием в том числе – России и революции.
Для меня наиболее близкой стала глава 1 «Долговременное сохранение богатства в системе управления семьей». Доступное изложение книги позволило осознать некоторые моменты зарубежных статей о семейном предпринимательстве, а именно о системах управления в семьях. Но говоря о доступном изложении следует предостеречь, что автор – юрист и это чувствуется из повествования. В книге прослеживается интерес к праву, антропологии, политическим наукам. Это немного усложняет восприятие книги, но в тоже время создает некий особый стиль, которому начинаешь верить.
В целом книга «Богатство семьи. Как сохранить в семье человеческий, интеллектуальный и финансовый капиталы» оставила хорошее впечатление, и я рекомендую ее для прочтения не только консультантам и исследователям, но и обычным семьям, строящим планы на будущее.
Книга «Богатство семьи. Как сохранить в семье человеческий, интеллектуальный и финансовый капиталы» - это прежде всего династический взгляд на семью. Джеймс Хьюз проводит параллель между понятием «долгосрочность» в общепринятом понимании и для «семей с капиталом» (в том числе и для семейного бизнеса):
«Если рассматривать семейную стратегию инвестиций за двадцати-, пятидесяти- и столетний периоды, на первый план выступает терпение, которому обязаны успехом такие выдающиеся инвесторы, как Филип Кэррет и Уоррен Баффетт. Терпение полезно, чем бы ни занималась семья. В отличие от большинства инвесторов, время работает на семьи, поставившие перед собой цель долгосрочного сохранения финансового капитала. И наоборот, неумение воспользоваться временем приводит к потере ценных семейных активов»
Выбор семьи в пользу долгосрочности – основная идея книги. Возможно именно это добавляет величия и ответственности к восприятию ее содержания. Это прежде всего работа с обучением и наставничеством внутри семьи. Поиск себя, не отвергая поддержки близких.
Интересно рассуждение автора о благотворительности, как средстве испытания себя в семейном бизнесе (вместо того, чтобы сразу окунаться в проблему долговременного сохранения капитала). «Благотворительность – первое и, вероятно, фундаментальное проявление личных и семейных ценностей. Если программа действий семьи декларирует эти ценности, филантропия доказывает их на практике»
Как и многие читатели, подтвержу, что описание основных принципов взаимодействия семей с трастовыми фондами в книге начинается со 2-й части «Семейные обычаи» и продолжается до ее конца (книга из 4-х частей) с теми или иными отступлениями, актуальными и для России. В любом случае, было интересно узнать чуть больше об этом инструменте. Бессрочный траст отмечен автором в негативном ключе с упоминанием в том числе – России и революции.
Для меня наиболее близкой стала глава 1 «Долговременное сохранение богатства в системе управления семьей». Доступное изложение книги позволило осознать некоторые моменты зарубежных статей о семейном предпринимательстве, а именно о системах управления в семьях. Но говоря о доступном изложении следует предостеречь, что автор – юрист и это чувствуется из повествования. В книге прослеживается интерес к праву, антропологии, политическим наукам. Это немного усложняет восприятие книги, но в тоже время создает некий особый стиль, которому начинаешь верить.
В целом книга «Богатство семьи. Как сохранить в семье человеческий, интеллектуальный и финансовый капиталы» оставила хорошее впечатление, и я рекомендую ее для прочтения не только консультантам и исследователям, но и обычным семьям, строящим планы на будущее.
August 23, 2025
James E. Hughes Jr.'s "Family Wealth--Keeping It in the Family" fundamentally transformed how wealthy families approach multi-generational wealth preservation. First published in 1997, this seminal work by the Princeton and Columbia Law-educated attorney challenges the conventional focus on financial capital that dominates wealth management.
Hughes's central thesis expands family wealth beyond finances to encompass five forms of capital: human (family members), intellectual (knowledge), social (relationships), spiritual (values), and financial—placing money last in importance. This reordering shifts conversations from tax strategies to human development, addressing the "shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations" curse that destroys most wealthy families.
The book provides systematic methodologies for family governance, including mission statements, internal "family banks" modeled on the Rothschilds, and 100-year planning horizons that force generational thinking. Hughes transforms abstract concepts into actionable frameworks through family balance sheets measuring non-financial capital and peer review systems for member development.
The work's influence is undeniable. Major financial institutions have incorporated Hughes's Five Capitals framework, while industry leaders consistently cite it as essential reading. The James E. Hughes Jr. Foundation, established in 2021, continues advancing his methodologies across academic and professional circles.
Yet limitations exist. Critics find Hughes's approach occasionally abstract and impractical for families seeking concrete guidance. His comprehensive frameworks—family constitutions, governance structures with executive branches, multi-generational planning—require substantial resources feasible only for the ultra-wealthy. The numerous historical references can feel digressive, while assumptions of existing multi-generational wealth limit applicability for first-generation creators.
Within broader wealth literature, Hughes's work serves as both foundation and inspiration. While Roy Williams and Vic Preisser's "Preparing Heirs" offers quantitative research on transfer failures, and Charles Collier explores philanthropic strategies, neither matches Hughes's philosophical comprehensiveness. Recent works like "Wealth 3.0" build explicitly on his optimistic, human-centered approach.
Hughes succeeds in elevating family wealth management from technical specialty to philosophical endeavor, drawing from psychology, anthropology, and economic theory. For families embracing his approach, benefits include breaking generational curses, developing capable heirs, and creating lasting unity. While complexity limits universal applicability, core insights about human capital primacy remain relevant far beyond ultra-high-net-worth audiences, cementing this work as essential reading for serious wealth preservation.
Hughes's central thesis expands family wealth beyond finances to encompass five forms of capital: human (family members), intellectual (knowledge), social (relationships), spiritual (values), and financial—placing money last in importance. This reordering shifts conversations from tax strategies to human development, addressing the "shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations" curse that destroys most wealthy families.
The book provides systematic methodologies for family governance, including mission statements, internal "family banks" modeled on the Rothschilds, and 100-year planning horizons that force generational thinking. Hughes transforms abstract concepts into actionable frameworks through family balance sheets measuring non-financial capital and peer review systems for member development.
The work's influence is undeniable. Major financial institutions have incorporated Hughes's Five Capitals framework, while industry leaders consistently cite it as essential reading. The James E. Hughes Jr. Foundation, established in 2021, continues advancing his methodologies across academic and professional circles.
Yet limitations exist. Critics find Hughes's approach occasionally abstract and impractical for families seeking concrete guidance. His comprehensive frameworks—family constitutions, governance structures with executive branches, multi-generational planning—require substantial resources feasible only for the ultra-wealthy. The numerous historical references can feel digressive, while assumptions of existing multi-generational wealth limit applicability for first-generation creators.
Within broader wealth literature, Hughes's work serves as both foundation and inspiration. While Roy Williams and Vic Preisser's "Preparing Heirs" offers quantitative research on transfer failures, and Charles Collier explores philanthropic strategies, neither matches Hughes's philosophical comprehensiveness. Recent works like "Wealth 3.0" build explicitly on his optimistic, human-centered approach.
Hughes succeeds in elevating family wealth management from technical specialty to philosophical endeavor, drawing from psychology, anthropology, and economic theory. For families embracing his approach, benefits include breaking generational curses, developing capable heirs, and creating lasting unity. While complexity limits universal applicability, core insights about human capital primacy remain relevant far beyond ultra-high-net-worth audiences, cementing this work as essential reading for serious wealth preservation.
March 14, 2018
The book details tips from Dr. Hughes on increasing/maintaining wealth from generation to generation. He starts by defining the capital in two states: intellectual and financial capital. Intellectual being the skills/talents/abilities of the individual and financial being physical assets, cash, financial options, ext. A family's total capital would be the sum of each individual's intellectual and financial capital.
Tips include:
- Recognizing the core competencies of each family member, i.e Howard Gardener's " Multiple Intelligence."
- Ensuring every family member is financially literate.
- Stressing the family's history, core values and purpose.
- Taking a long term view towards wealth.
His analogy for understanding what a beneficiary and trustee does is superb. " Let's imagine a knight about to go off to the Holy Land to fight for Christianity. The knight is on his horse and is saying goodbye to his wife and 10-year-old son. The knight looks out over his land and hopes his son will one day inherit it from him. The knight then notices his neighbor and remembers that his neighbor is not going to join him in the crusade. He then begins to wonder... ' Suppose I die in the Holy Land? Who will protect my wife and my son from my neighbor taking the land?'
Happily, the local bishop has just arrived to give his blessing to the knight and thank him for going on the Crusade. The knight then asks the bishop if the bishop would be willing to hold the title to his land while he is away on the Crusade. He explains to the Bishop that. if he returns, he expects the Bishop to return the title to him and that, if he does not return, he will expect the Bishop to hold the title until his son reaches his majority and then turn the title over to his son. Finally, he also asks the Bishop to keep his neighbor on the neighbor's side of the boundary while he is away. The bishop, happy that the knight is about God's work, agrees that, in return for the knight's willingness to go on the Crusade, he will carry out the knight's wishes exactly as the knight requests. The Bishop becomes a trustee when he receives the land title from the knight. The knight and the knight's son become beneficiaries of a trust at the same moment the Bishop becomes trustee. The agreement between the knight and the bishop constitutes the trust.
Tips include:
- Recognizing the core competencies of each family member, i.e Howard Gardener's " Multiple Intelligence."
- Ensuring every family member is financially literate.
- Stressing the family's history, core values and purpose.
- Taking a long term view towards wealth.
His analogy for understanding what a beneficiary and trustee does is superb. " Let's imagine a knight about to go off to the Holy Land to fight for Christianity. The knight is on his horse and is saying goodbye to his wife and 10-year-old son. The knight looks out over his land and hopes his son will one day inherit it from him. The knight then notices his neighbor and remembers that his neighbor is not going to join him in the crusade. He then begins to wonder... ' Suppose I die in the Holy Land? Who will protect my wife and my son from my neighbor taking the land?'
Happily, the local bishop has just arrived to give his blessing to the knight and thank him for going on the Crusade. The knight then asks the bishop if the bishop would be willing to hold the title to his land while he is away on the Crusade. He explains to the Bishop that. if he returns, he expects the Bishop to return the title to him and that, if he does not return, he will expect the Bishop to hold the title until his son reaches his majority and then turn the title over to his son. Finally, he also asks the Bishop to keep his neighbor on the neighbor's side of the boundary while he is away. The bishop, happy that the knight is about God's work, agrees that, in return for the knight's willingness to go on the Crusade, he will carry out the knight's wishes exactly as the knight requests. The Bishop becomes a trustee when he receives the land title from the knight. The knight and the knight's son become beneficiaries of a trust at the same moment the Bishop becomes trustee. The agreement between the knight and the bishop constitutes the trust.
June 20, 2020
There is much in this book of value to those trying to plan how to ensure transmission of capital across generations of a family. Particularly interesting is the focus on non-financial capital and actively working on the development and use of non-financial assets. There is very little practical advice, however, and a great deal of conceptualization. This is not without value, but it is vague and doesn’t lead to any specific actions without a great deal more thought and information. Within the bounds of conceptual guidelines, most of the book is quite good.
What is not good and is actually quite terrible are the many analogies between families and the US government and US Constitution. These are frequent and routinely strained and terrible. In addition, there are factual errors (e.g., the claim that all Americans can legally vote is clearly untrue) and questionable opinions (e.g., that voting for representatives every two years by a fraction of American adults represents a renewed agreement to a “social contract”) densely populating the first portion of the book and sparsely scattered throughout the rest.
With some intermittent teeth-gritting and perseverance, it is possible to extract value from this book, but I would be very unlikely to recommend it to anyone as a good source for addressing the subject contained in the title.
What is not good and is actually quite terrible are the many analogies between families and the US government and US Constitution. These are frequent and routinely strained and terrible. In addition, there are factual errors (e.g., the claim that all Americans can legally vote is clearly untrue) and questionable opinions (e.g., that voting for representatives every two years by a fraction of American adults represents a renewed agreement to a “social contract”) densely populating the first portion of the book and sparsely scattered throughout the rest.
With some intermittent teeth-gritting and perseverance, it is possible to extract value from this book, but I would be very unlikely to recommend it to anyone as a good source for addressing the subject contained in the title.
January 6, 2025
A very informative how-to from a lawyer's perspective on what creates a family legacy and family generational wealth and how to maintain it. Learned a lot in the first half, the second half was a little too technical for me to fully understand as a common young person ( a beneficiary ). But overall it was a pretty easy read with short chapters split up in lots of sections and headings. I read the physical book, took me probably around 10-12 hours to complete.
Main takeaways:
- every generation needs to see themselves as the first generation
- wealth is more than just money, but also human and intellectual capital, and pursuit of passion and happiness is much more important than people think it is
- get a mentor
Main takeaways:
- every generation needs to see themselves as the first generation
- wealth is more than just money, but also human and intellectual capital, and pursuit of passion and happiness is much more important than people think it is
- get a mentor
October 14, 2023
I work with a lot of high net worth families, especially on the multi-generational transition, so I've been in a lot of situations where the ideas of this book can be tested. It's the real deal. Hughes has spent decades working with many different families and it shows in this book.
Some sections are profound and useful for all families (e.g. governance) and some sections are really niche and only useful for some families (e.g. private trust companies). There were a few spots where it bogged down in dry writing (covering technical stuff), but in general it was one of the best family business books I've read.
Some sections are profound and useful for all families (e.g. governance) and some sections are really niche and only useful for some families (e.g. private trust companies). There were a few spots where it bogged down in dry writing (covering technical stuff), but in general it was one of the best family business books I've read.
March 8, 2020
Much of the content of this book is for High Net-Worth Individuals (HNWI). The devil is, though again, in the details.
The main take for me was that the author divides the capital into three sub-divisions: human capital, intellectual capital, and financial capital. And that it is a waste of good money when financial capital is used for something else than to increase the human capital or intellectual capital. Moreover, the author says that giving cash to the next generation is very addictive, and it's like offering alcohol to an alcoholic.
The main take for me was that the author divides the capital into three sub-divisions: human capital, intellectual capital, and financial capital. And that it is a waste of good money when financial capital is used for something else than to increase the human capital or intellectual capital. Moreover, the author says that giving cash to the next generation is very addictive, and it's like offering alcohol to an alcoholic.
January 16, 2024
this would have been a DNF for me had it not been recommended by a close family friend. unless you’re a millionaire this book isn’t really for you. the couple of chapters that are applicable to the everyday person contain 0 relevant examples or helpful actionable items. what a struggle! the ONLY helpful piece of this book is to focus on family members’ social, human, and intellectual capital, not just financial capital.
December 19, 2023
Great book on building intergenerational wealth the right way. It’s a little dated in some areas, but overall it offers lots of good insights. I love the concept of maximizing families 3 types of capital (financial, human, and intellectual). I’m not at a stage to implement everything in this book, but I for sure will go back and relisten to it.
January 23, 2022
A great in-depth book on family wealth and dives not just into the financial aspects of it, but the heart of it.
How to manage family meetings, rules and philosophy to follow. Breaks complicated notions down to bite-size ideas, easy to understand.
How to manage family meetings, rules and philosophy to follow. Breaks complicated notions down to bite-size ideas, easy to understand.
October 20, 2022
I have enjoyed this book greatly. It gave me valuable insights about our family values we should embrace to become and sustain success and happiness.
To future self:
Please, read it again in 10 years.
To future self:
Please, read it again in 10 years.
November 8, 2022
For families with high net worth, as well as for families that want helpful hints about financial stewardship for the next generation... good read. For families without multi-generational wealth, some chapters can be skimmed or skipped.
May 18, 2023
After listening to this book on audiotape, I bought it to give to family members. Very enlightening, especially after reading “Capital without Borders: Wealth
Managers and the One Percent” by Brooke Harrington.
Managers and the One Percent” by Brooke Harrington.
November 20, 2023
This book is full of good information. I’m not in the right situation to form a perpetual trust. I particularly like the author’s premise that your family members are the most important asset of the family’s wealth.
July 5, 2024
This book has been very enriching. I needed something to help my family start and build a family fund, but it has given more than I expected to help us look further into the future for a generational fund and into multi dimensional family growth.
March 7, 2025
This book reminded me of Family Fortunes. I confess I ended up skimming the final parts, since I think it will be more relevant if/when I've actually made my fortune.
Still, a very good set of principles to keep in mind in the meantime.
https://4201mass.blogspot.com/
Still, a very good set of principles to keep in mind in the meantime.
https://4201mass.blogspot.com/
March 30, 2025
This was a good introduction. The author provided good insight and examples. Will definitely go deeper and learn more. It’s worth rereading. Great explanations for various ways to identity family capital and not just financial capital.
September 28, 2025
Amazing book!
I love that it doesn't focus so much on finances for family wealth, but more on the other two ressources of human and intellectual capital.
This book is a very good instruction guide to building your own family legacy. I can't wait to put the knowledge into action.
I love that it doesn't focus so much on finances for family wealth, but more on the other two ressources of human and intellectual capital.
This book is a very good instruction guide to building your own family legacy. I can't wait to put the knowledge into action.
July 2, 2018
Отличный материал по методам строительства крепкого фундамента и следования чертежу.
Read
June 17, 2019Overview of Wealth Management and Family Trust Funds.
Principles, strategies and best practices.
Principles, strategies and best practices.
June 17, 2020
Excellent! Highly recomended. James makes compex themes very understandable for everyone.
December 8, 2021
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