A founding-generation principal stepped back. Three siblings in their late thirties stepped in. The committee that worked for their father was not going to work for them. The redesign took two years.
The principal had run the family's investment committee for twenty-two years. He knew every position, every manager relationship, every quirk of the consolidated balance sheet. The system worked because he was the system.
By the time he engaged us, he was sixty-eight. The next generation was arriving, in their thirties, well-educated, opinionated, and not aligned with each other. The principal wanted to retire from the committee within five years. He did not have a plan.
The existing committee was efficient because it was small. The principal made calls. The advisors implemented. There was no friction because there was no debate.
Adding three siblings as voting members would change everything. Each sibling brought a different posture toward risk, philanthropy, and the family business. None of them had committee experience.
Eldest sibling: conservative, oriented toward capital preservation
Middle sibling: oriented toward private investments and operating businesses
Youngest sibling: focused on impact and philanthropic strategy
The principal wanted everyone heard. He also wanted decisions made.
I built this committee around my own brain. The next generation needs a committee built around four brains, not one.
THE FOUNDING PRINCIPAL
The work happened across three phases over two years.
One-on-one interviews with each family member. Separate, off-the-record conversations about what they wanted from the family's capital and what they did not. We mapped overlap and friction.
We rewrote the committee charter. Voting members went from 1 to 4 (the four family principals), with non-voting seats added for advisors. We restructured the agenda into rotating focus areas so each sibling led a domain quarterly.
Six committee meetings under the new structure, with our team facilitating. By month nine, the family ran the meetings without us in the room.
| Engagement at a glance | |
|---|---|
| QUADRANTS | My Wealth |
| STAGE | Multi-Generational Transition |
| DURATION | 4 years (active), ongoing review |
| PQ TEAM | Senior Advisor, Family Governance Lead, NextGen Programming |
| DISCIPLINES | Investment Strategy, Family Governance, Facilitation |
The investment committee has been running under the new structure for over two years. The principal still attends, but as a non-voting elder. Decisions get made faster than we expected. Disagreement is more common than under the old structure, but it is the right kind.
The youngest sibling now chairs the philanthropic strategy review. The middle sibling led the firm's first co-investment. The eldest sibling rebuilt the policy on private credit allocation. Each of them brought their domain to the committee, and the committee got smarter for it.
The principal told us recently that he sleeps better. We took that as the metric that mattered.