Bridging Generations: How Family Offices Build Legacy & Teach the Next Gen

In this episode of the Family Office Podcast, recorded live at our Beverly Hills Investor Club Summit, top family office leaders discuss one of the most important — and most human — aspects of wealth: how to communicate, educate, and connect across generations.

From teaching children about finance and investing at an early age to integrating Gen 2 and Gen 3 into family office meetings, this conversation explores the values, respect, and real-world experiences that build lasting legacies.

💡 Key Takeaways:

How leading families teach the next generation about wealth and responsibility

Why respect and listening are essential to effective communication

Real examples of integrating children into investment and philanthropy discussions

How culture shapes family office dynamics and parenting styles

Simple ways to prepare future heirs for stewardship, not entitlement

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Transcript

Welcome to the Family Office podcast. In this episode recorded live at our Beverly
Hills Investor Club Summit, we explore how family offices communicate across
generations, teaching values, building trust, and preparing the next generation to lead
with purpose. Let's get into it.
How do you keep communications effective across generations in a family office?
And, you know, Steve, Steve,
looking at your background, and I could be wrong, the Knights of Goodness sounds
like such an interesting group. And do you mind talking a little bit just about it
from the background of where it started? And then how that might relate from
generation, and then we could kind of, other people can chime into it if that makes
sense. Sure. Well, if Knights of Goodness is a totally separate organization, it is
a charity. It's a public charity. And it was developed specifically to grant partial
scholarships to children for the most part that were not water safe.
And of course, that what it became does address the question of generations.
Because essentially, as we went forward with it, we saw that, for example,
we were dealing with very little kids, with handicapped.
that is really going to create a positive outcome.
Sorry,
as a second, John. Oh, sorry, go ahead. Oh, no, go. Certainly, yeah, so my mother
involved me very early age, taking me to meetings, taking me to the bank, taking me
to attorney's offices. So I was very used to that environment. I used to play
banker with my dolls. I don't know if that's because I had a natural affinity for
those things, or if it's because of her exposure to that, I also sold shares in my
dogs at a very early... Ah, that's great. But I really credit this to my mother,
who was a widow, and was not very well prepared to be a significant inheritor of a
wealth when my father passed when I was eight. And as a mother myself, I have two
sons. They're not here with me, but I often take them to conferences like this.
And they're very actively involved in investing with me. They run my crypto and
blockchain portfolio, for one thing. And finding an interest that they have that is
fundable, that's investable, that's something that you can use to engage them.
I think also just respect.
They have knowledge and opinions about things that we don't understand. Each
generation has their benefits and their strengths and gathering that is important.
Philanthropy sometimes is another approach or family bank type of approach where you
say we have a certain amount of capital, you know, pitch the deal and maybe you'll
get some of it. So different engagement strategies, but I've been happy with what my
mother did and I've been trying to model her with my sons. That's great. Well,
thank you for stealing all of the words that I had come up with. What do you ask
that question? But I would tell you that I think respect is probably one of the
most important ones.
Most people do not speak to Gen 2 or Gen 3 depending on where your starting point,
bring. It may not be that they're capable of running the company. So succession is
not obviously the answer there, but, you know, bringing enough value to the family
is something that, you know, most people have the ability to do. And so you have
to treat them with respect, ask questions, and talk to them like they're a human
being and not like you're the professional and they're, you know, just a peon of
the family. You know, I'm looking over here, this gentleman's got his daughter
sitting next to him. I mean, succession is starting early. Learning how to
communicate with people, learning how to people look people in the eye. I know Brian
McMahon, who I've known for many, many years was talking about this morning. His son
doesn't communicate anymore because everything's in text. At the end of the day, you
have to be able to look somebody in the eye, whether you're on a Zoom or in
person, shake a hand and be able to have an intelligent conversation. And so treat
these people with respect. I mean, you know, they are the inheritors of this wealth
and they need to be part of the process. I think that's actually Richard's top
equity analyst, but I'm correct. His daughter there. Anyway, sorry, would you...
Just like Alexandra, we actually do the same thing. We bring in the kids. My son
comes in, of needs daughters come in into our conferences. We have them sit down
with us during meetings. They get to see firsthand what it is to actually be a
family office. We teach the fundamentals, eye contact, having a smile on your face.
Make sure when you're talking to someone, you're looking at them when you're talking
to them. Not on the ground, not at your phone, no text, no nothing. That's not
even allowed when they're with us. The only time they get to have their phones is
if we're doing something and we're not paying attention to them at that point.
Otherwise, they wear our logos. They walk around. They say hi to everyone at any
conference that we do. Can you describe how, like, that would happen over the course
of a year with your different family offices? Well, when we talk to the different
families, it really, really depends on what their mandate is and what their family
graphics is also. Every culture is different. Everyone wants to be treated
differently. We're Indian, we make sure our kids are there. They have no choice.
They have to do whatever we say. And I think giving them that foundation to have
that respect and have that discipline is something what makes the kids want to say,
you know what? I want to do this. I want to go out and I want to see what's out
there. What can I look at? We show them portfolios. We ask them, what do you think
about this? What's your favorite thing? What do you follow the most? If you look at
it, kids that are on TikTok, on Instagram, they already know what's going to make
money. You just need to listen to them. Yeah, that's great. How old are yours? Mine
are 25 and 21, and they're not listening to me anymore. Mine is about to turn 20
in October this year of Needs' daughter is 15 and 13. She's about to be 14.
They better listen because if they don't listen to her, they have to listen to me.
So we tag team them. That's great.
Thanks for joining us for this conversation. In our next episode, we'll go deeper
into the strategies some structures that protect and multiply family wealth. Stay
tuned.