The Secret to Family Meetings by Andrew Busser, Pitcairn President & CEO

The first time I attended a family meeting for a prominent American family was a big eye-opener. I was maybe 30 years old and attended in my capacity as a junior investment advisor. The setting was a fancy private club in Chicago. The room was beautiful, and the club’s service was excellent.

One problem: it was an incredibly stuffy affair (suits, ties, dresses, etc.) with a table set up like a corporate board meeting, even though there were only eight family members in attendance. The family matriarch in her early 80s sat at the head of the table, and other family members were invited to speak when they were spoken to. There was no particular agenda other than to have an endless stream of advisors (including me) go through thick slide decks of numbers, charts, and graphs. Not exactly the warm, freeflowing exchange one might want for such a meeting. The result was a boring one-way street of information with no new ideas and no time for relationship building. After the meeting was over, a painful five hours later (my endless charts and graphs probably didn’t help), we all filed down to the dining room at the club for dinner. As I recall, pretty much everyone ordered a stiff drink.

Successful family meetings are an essential component of managing a family-owned business, especially for wealthy families. Such gatherings are not only about ensuring the smooth operation of the business — as was somewhat achieved in the example above — but also about facilitating family harmony and ensuring that relationships and the family’s legacy continue through generations. So, after more than twenty years of attending various meetings across dozens of families, here are 11 tips for facilitating productive family meetings that foster unity and effectively grow wealth across generations.

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