Kirby Rosplock is the founder of the family office learning platform Tamarind Learning and author of The Complete Family Office Handbook and The Complete Direct Investing Handbook. She spoke with Crain Currency about how advisers and families can work together to build optimal learning environments for inheritors of wealth.
Your family owned a leading lumber business for over 100 years. How have your personal experiences and family history affected your consulting work with family offices?
Being able to understand what it’s like to be in your client’s shoes profoundly impacts how you engage with them. Many advisers might be awestruck or impressed by the stature, wealth and impressive accomplishments of their clients. Yes, I feel that, too. But what I see first is their humanity, not their largesse. I see them for what makes them most like the rest of the world … they have or had a mother and father. They likely did something or were born into something extraordinary to be where they are today. Our family history has a profound impact on how we see the world and what we project into the future.
I hope the lessons I have learned from my family and continue to learn daily inform my practice and keep me humble, honest, authentic and grounded. I also recognize that my family made many mistakes among their many successes. I hope the families I work with can avoid some of those pitfalls and navigate around those.
What criteria is needed to launch successful learning journeys for family or individual members who inherit wealth and/or a business?
The secret to launching successful learning journeys has everything to do with engagement, interest and learning champions. Many ask when is the right time, and I answer there is never a right or wrong time. However, the best time is when 1) the family is invited; 2) the invitation is well-received; 3) the family has one or more “learning champions” or family members who are spark plugs or advocates to make learning fun, interesting and engaging; and 4) there is a connection between learning and milestones. By milestones, I am talking about being eligible to be on a junior board, have an internship in the company, be recognized by the family council or be promoted to a committee or board status.
Again, learning must connote a progression to provide you with more access and ability to do more and contribute to the broader family enterprise or office.
What do most advisers and families get wrong when it comes to revealing information about wealth?
Context — advisers and families often jump to the punchline by providing the data points without context around the numbers. Can you imagine telling someone to jump out of a plane before giving them instructions on how to deploy their parachute? That is frightening.
Sometimes when we arm beneficiaries or family members with numbers and data, they think they understand what they hear. Still, they may not understand that as a trust beneficiary, they do not own the assets in their trust, and perhaps they do not have the right to have access to those assets until they reach a certain age. But if they hear in an estate plan review there is a trust in their name worth $10 million, they may falsely assume that they have $10 million at their disposal. It helps to unpack and explain how trusts, estate plans and the roles of beneficiaries and their fiduciaries work before digging into the numbers.
The other side of the coin is you can overwhelm or scare family members numbed by the numbers. These individuals tend to recoil when told they are terminally wealthy, as if it is an affliction. Again, without the proper discussion and socialization, they feel like this was not something they asked for, nor was it a responsibility they were expecting.
Wealth impacts individuals in many ways, and the best step is to tread lightly before doing a significant reveal so as not to alienate, disenfranchise or disillusion those to whom you are trying to impart the wealth.
How can tools such as Tamarind Learning support a family’s learning journey?
Tamarind Learning is a virtual learning platform for enterprising and affluent individuals, families and their advisers to access sophisticated learning materials around trusts, tax, estate planning, investing, finance, family office and more. We provide a personal wealth self-assessment to help individuals gauge where they might have learning gaps and to give them a road map in 10 key learning areas. We also have a next-gen Personal Education Plan tool that can prioritize education topics and create a report with your personal vision, learning objectives and goals.
Family members learn in different ways, and Tamarind Learning is just one of the many approaches to support families and individuals preparing for the greatest wealth transfer in history, as $90 [trillion] to $140 trillion is changing hands between boomers and Gen X and millennials. Some will, alternatively, want to learn in peer groups such as In Three Generations, a RisingGen peer learning community run by two RisingGen coaches, Kristen Heaney and Celine Fitzgerald, who both have first had experience as family enterprise members in their own family businesses. Kristen and Celine have seen their coaching practice grow significantly, as many rising gen like to learn with peers to 1) help them stay accountable, 2) learn and share their experiences with others and 3) feel comfortable and safe not being alone.
Personalized learning coaches are also popular. Paul Edelman of Edelman & Associates has been advising and coaching family members for over 30 years and has developed his proprietary coaching approach and style. So, whether it’s a community, a coach, an asynchronous online solution or tool, or a university-based or private membership organization, there are many educational resources available.
Can you share any stories about clients whose journeys to inheriting wealth have been especially affected by Tamarind Learning?
Tamarind Learning’s impact on clients' journeys to inheriting wealth is profound, particularly during crucial decision-making periods. Many of our clients are well into adulthood and are still uneasy about the logistics of owning and managing their wealth.
One notable story involves family members who approached us as newly named trustees, with little understanding of their new roles and responsibilities, and were forced to make decisions while their parent was deemed infirm. Despite their initial unease, their commitment was commendable. Within a few months, they immersed themselves in our curriculum, gaining the confidence and knowledge to address their urgent issues.
Their feedback was that our curriculum substantially improved their ability to administer their family’s trust. They went from having no knowledge to feeling capable and confident; this is the feedback we often hear from our clients. Whether they are new trustees, overseeing wealth or beneficiaries of a trust, Tamarind’s curriculum empowers them to take ownership of their roles and prepares them to be effective decision-makers.