Engagement, Enablement and Encouragement

Matthew Fleming on helping families prepare their next generation
 

Matthew Fleming, Stonehage Fleming - Our next gen courses focus on that subtle point at which children start to become young adults. We run regular courses for the children and grandchildren of our client families. The format is varied and includes a range of carefully-selected speakers, collaborative team sessions and exercises to open the minds of the young people who attend. They are not designed to bombard attendees with information but to help that cohort of young people to understand – and eventually help to implement – the value of a clear purpose for their family wealth.

Attendees to our ‘Next Gen’ courses can expect to be challenged. We facilitate those vital conversations around the big and often puzzling questions they face – everything from leadership to how to handle yourself in a crisis, to how to be a good cross-generational communicator. The inability to talk effectively and engage with the next generation is one of the greatest threats to families and their wealth.

It’s extraordinary how many young people get to 21 and are financially illiterate. Financial education is an important part of the programme. We cover: What does the investment universe look like? How do I put a portfolio together? What is a trust? This is an important foundation.
Fundamentally, though, we see our job as providing a safe space for people at similar stages in their lives to talk, reflect and understand the perspectives of their peers. After all, they are often dealing with the same sort of opportunities and challenges.

The relationship is two-way. It is important for us that we keep pace with the changing profile of the next generation. It is inevitable that today’s young people see the world through a different lens to previous generations. The world has changed so much this century though, that it feels particularly marked. There is an impatience to young people’s lives which did not exist in their parents’ time. While this has made them more willing to open up about their feelings, hopes and fears in some ways, they have lost the ability to take the time to discuss things.  That’s what our courses are for and in many ways that’s what a Family Office itself should be for too.

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