Much has been written for trustees about the distribution function: how to understand various distribution standards (e.g., health, education and maintenance); how to deal with difficult or incapacitated beneficiaries; how to balance intergenerational considerations in making distributions. This note considers the distribution function from a different perspective: that of a responsible adult beneficiary. Although this may be the most seldom theorized or discussed scenario, it is also the most common. And in this least problematic…

Many multigenerational business families decide at some point to encourage family members to enter into premarital agreements. Often families are motivated by one experience with a “bad divorce” – whether that means a divorce that disrupts the family or business, removes an unexpected amount of assets from the family’s control, or causes undue suffering for children or grandchildren. Particularly as enterprising families move into their second, third, or fourth generations (and have therefore had such…

I recently wrote a chapter on the role mediators can play in family business transitions, published in Susan Gary (ed.), Mediation for Estate Planners: Managing Family Conflict. The chapter looks at the sources of conflict in family businesses and how mediators and other conflict professionals might help. It then examines, however, the various reasons that family members may not want to turn to a mediator: they may not want to admit that a "dispute" exists; the family business transition may be gradual, whereas most conflict interventions are acute; the family may not want a "neutral," instead seeking a professional that is more interventionist or that more often offers an opinion. The chapter then goes on, however, to argue that conflict engagement professionals have a range of skills and techniques that can still be extremely helpful to business families, even if not through traditional conflict management roles such as mediation. These…