Family Governance Provisions
What is it?
Family governance provisions establish structures for family decision-making about wealth. This can include family councils, family meetings, family mission statements, and procedures for family members to communicate about trust matters. These provisions recognize that wealth preservation is as much about family unity as legal structures.
Why is it important?
As Family Fortunes emphasizes, the #1 predictor of multigenerational wealth success is family communication and shared values—not investment returns or legal structures. Family governance provisions create frameworks for discussing wealth, making collective decisions, resolving conflicts, and transmitting values. Families that meet regularly and communicate openly preserve wealth; those that don't lose it to conflict.
Example Language
The Trustee is encouraged to convene annual family meetings with all adult beneficiaries to discuss: (a) Trust investment performance; (b) distribution policies; (c) family philanthropic goals; (d) beneficiary needs and circumstances. The Trustee shall provide written annual reports to all adult beneficiaries and shall consider family input in exercising discretionary powers.