Family Governance

Family governance is one of OmniStar’s 10 Elements of wealth management. What is family governance and why does it matter? We’ll save the history lesson for another day, but our elements have been carefully selected and manicured over the last 30+ years. We’re interested in learning about what matters most to individuals, and we understand how to accumulate wealth to reach the desired objectives. We understand how wealth is maintained, grown, and positioned to benefit generations to come. We also understand how wealth is destroyed. Family governance didn’t make our elements by chance. It plays a critical role in proper wealth management. We have been talking about family governance with our clients for years, but recently many of you have asked questions about the topic.

There is a 100% probability that we die. If you have assets when you die, they pass to the next generation. How your assets pass to your children or grandchildren is largely up to you. The physical transfer of assets is easy – there are strategies we can implement to achieve more targeted outcomes, but what happens after the money has passed is usually more of a grey area. Let us be clear – it doesn’t have to be.  

Today, so much emphasis is placed on passing assets to the next generation that much of the story behind how the assets were accumulated is lost. Wealth that took a lifetime(s) to accumulate is squandered rapidly. In our professional opinion, this is a tremendous failure. There shouldn’t be a dime moved from one generation to the next until the questions below have been answered with detail.

• What are the principles that guide your family’s life/choices/decisions?
• What values are you instilling and passing on to your family?
• What lessons have you learned in life that you want to pass to future generations?
• What are some of your favorite quotes, bible verses, proverbs, or other pieces of wisdom?
• What are the things you want to intentionally teach your children and grandchildren?
• What advice would you give to a young person growing up today?
• How do you want your wealth to affect your family members and the causes you support?
• Are there any other important ideas or messages?

Family governance is much more than dollars flowing from you to your beneficiaries. Your values, morals, life lessons, work ethic, charitable inclinations, and wisdom are part of your legacy. How do you properly transition a lifetime of wealth and knowledge to the next generation? We can help with that. Wealth transfer is something to be embraced. With appropriate planning, good stewards of wealth are created. Good stewards of wealth understand the amount of work that went into generating the assets being passed to them. They know the answers to the questions above and agree to pass that wisdom to their own beneficiaries. They are well prepared for the responsibility of protecting what has been built.

If you have an advisor who isn’t talking to you about family governance, you may want to rethink that relationship. If you would like to discuss family governance with our team, we would be happy to spend some time with you. We are eager to help. It is never too early to start the conversation.

To learn more about our Legacy Will Workbook or our Family Summit Meetings, please watch the below video, and click this link to be directed to our family governance web page.