Considering your new year’s resolutions? Managing your wealth should be one

When considering succession planning or philanthropy, as an integral part of the wider family strategy, planning early can help to ensure the next generation is actively engaged and that your business has a secure future.

Defining your legacy and handing down to the next generation or selling an owner-managed business, is often an emotionally complicated, deeply personal and a once-in-a-lifetime decision. It’s rarely perceived as urgent because most people don’t like to think about retirement, death and what happens next.  However, to preserve the health and longevity of a family business and for the benefit of continuity, it’s important to consider these issues as early as possible. Even if your child is just an infant, doing so will increase the likelihood of preserving and growing your family wealth well beyond the leadership transition.

When it comes to charitable giving, we’re often ruled by our hearts and not our heads. Everyone has a broad range of choice when it comes to giving. It’s an individual choice as to how much or little is given and how much public awareness goes with this. Some use charitable giving to define their family whereas others use it to enhance the family’s reputation. Whatever the approach, philanthropy is usually a wider party of family wealth planning.

Like our approach to philanthropic planning, having one that integrates philanthropy with succession planning and aligns with family values (often through family approach to philanthropy) is a useful vehicle to educate the younger generation. Educating younger generations on the value of money and how decisions are made in a structured governance framework is important when considering succession planning.

If done well, it can enhance family togetherness, provide purpose for family members and ensure the family’s business and philanthropic legacy is honoured and continued.

If you’re thinking about succession planning, charitable giving or would like to discuss the issues raised in this paper further, please contact Ian Rumens, Charlotte Phipps-Hornby or your usual Intertrust contact.