Abstract
Given the complexity in strategy, governance and relationships involved in family business, one might marvel that a family ever emerges on the other side and wants to find a permanent way to continue together. But many families that have successfully accumulated significant wealth begin to search for a means to preserve it for present and future generations. One way to do so is to form a family office. Although definitions differ, a family office is generally organized to manage and leverage the family’s collective wealth, with an emphasis on stewardship rather than growth. Stewardship implies a long-term view and looks at inherited wealth as something to be treasured and preserved, in real terms, for future generations of family. A sense of stewardship is a powerful motivator, in the first place, not to destroy the financial and philosophical legacy of the founder and, second and ideally, to extend the reach of these resources into the modern day.
The only question with wealth is what you do with it …
—Attributed to John D. Rockefeller, Jr.
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Notes
Leleux, Benoît, Joachim Schwass and Albert André Diversé. “Europe’s Family Offices, Private Equity and Venture Capital”. 2007.
Burri, Myriam and Olivier Reymond. “The Family Office: Fleeting Trend or Lasting Values?” Journal of Financial Transformation, 2005, 76–78.
Leleux, Benoît, Joachim Schwass and Albert André Diversé. “Europe’s Family Offices, Private Equity and Venture Capital”. 2007.
Curtis, Gregory. “Establishing a Family Office: A Few Basics”. 2001.
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© 2011 Joachim Schwass, Håkan Hillerström and Holger Kück with Colleen Lief
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Schwass, J., Hillerström, H., Kück, H., Lief, C. (2011). The Future — The Family Office. In: Wise Wealth. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230295278_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230295278_5
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
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