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Building a legacy: Your family story

Building a legacy: Your family story

Mr FamilyOffice
October 27, 2023

Building a legacy: Your family story 🧭

Life moves quickly and it’s easy for the past to fade away

But the wealthiest and most successful families (think the Rockefellers, the Rothschilds) take time to record their story

> I advise 1st generation family offices to do the same

> In fact, I advise all families to do the same

Preserving family history isn't just about nostalgia, it's a compass. It's the cornerstone for understanding their roots, values, and the legacy they're building. Stories are kept alive because history shapes the future

This goes beyond just documenting past achievements. The family history is a dynamic tool that strengthens the fabric of the family's purpose

A family history serves as a bridge that connects generations by articulating the family's values, mission, and goals

Through storytelling, families can transmit lessons to future generations, ensuring they understand and appreciate the legacy they're inheriting

Just as individuals can build experience and expertise over time, so too can families

Recording histories can help pass on strategies and best practices. It gives successors the knowledge to navigate the complexities of wealth management and family businesses

Family office benefits

Family storytelling helps families endure

It also helps family offices. It helps them to manage the transitions and adaptation required over time. It helps to ensure the family office remains relevant and effective as new generations take over and new team members join the family office

Family storytelling opens channels of communication and collaboration among family members and the family office team. It builds trust and a shared sense of purpose that extends beyond managing assets to preserving the family's unique identity and heritage

Family histories can also serve as a powerful marketing tool to attract like-minded families or employees. Building alliances with families that share core values can lead to investment, earning, and networking opportunities. A clear set of values and goals can also help attract, recruit and retain top-tier team members

It’s easy to underestimate the power of values. But values are the foundation on which all great families and companies are built

Storytelling helps to define and support those values

These stories can inspire and motivate both the family and the family office team for generations to come

It doesn’t have to be a book 📖

A family history can take various forms - memoirs, biographies, historical accounts. But you can get imaginative:

🎥 video - family interviews by professional filmmakers can retell life stories, pass on lessons on parenting, business, and wealth management. Seeing the images and hearing the voices of family members can be particularly impactful for younger generations

📷 photos - in the age of digital photography, the sheer number of images can be overwhelming. But photos come to life when they are organized into albums or digital archives that include dates and narratives. Specialist legacy books can help bring the photos to life

✉️ letters - often highly personal and emotional. Letters should be preserved securely and digitized for future accessibility

🕰️ heirlooms - with their connection to the past, heirlooms can carry immeasurable sentimental value for families. But without careful documentation, the personal significance of heirlooms can be forgotten. An inventory of items should be recorded along with the connected stories

Everyone can do it

Your kids and grandkids will thank you for writing your family story

The urge to study family history tends to kick in later in life. Often too late for those enlightening conversations with parents and grandparents

If you have a gift for writing, do it yourself. If not, hire a professional to help turn interviews, journals, diaries and letters into memoirs and historical accounts

Or start organizing those videos and scanning those photos

Don’t just take my word for it:

Everyone has a story to tell

Are you writing yours?

This newsletter comes with a FREE accompanying Tweet… share your experiences, tell your story, or just plug the newsletter 😉

𝕏 highlights

A roundup of some Twitter highlights from the week

Asset allocation at family offices:

Confessions from family offices have been quite popular

If you have a family office confession, drop me a DM

A nice conceptual framework:

📚 what to read

Observant readers will have noticed a few tweets about Elon Musk this week. I binge-read his new biography by Walter Isaacson. Whatever your position; fanboy love, visceral hate, nuanced appreciation…. Elon Musk is a force of nature and the biography captures his brilliant and chaotic life