Why do family enterprise decisions stall? Paul Edelman examines six factors, including competing objectives, decision authority, governance, leadership capacity, and family dynamics.

Joe Keller, the central figure in All My Sons, is not presented as a cartoon villain. He is a father, a business owner, and a man who sees himself as having done what he had to do to protect his family and his company. That is what makes the play so useful for thinking about boards and family enterprises.

free webinar for lawyers, CPAs, financial advisers, and others working with families on estate planning

Paul Edelman and Martin M. Shenkman provide commentary on how the language advisors use in meetings, letters, and file memoranda can move clients from merely approving an estate plan to truly owning it—particularly when the conversations involve the emotionally difficult terrain estate planning inevitably covers: mortality, incapacity, control, family conflict, and the readiness of beneficiaries.

A look at how families can slow the decision down before it becomes a yes-or-no debate.

Many wealth advisors recognize when a family would benefit from facilitation, but introducing the idea can feel delicate. This field guide offers practical language for positioning facilitation as added structure for important decisions rather than as a response to family dysfunction.

Clients often ask attorneys for a “simple” estate plan. The request makes sense. Estate planning can feel technical, expensive, and emotionally heavy. Simplicity has real value. But a simpler document does not always create a simpler outcome.

Family office investment decisions often look technical on the surface. But for the family, they may also carry meaning about legacy, control, loyalty, stewardship, fairness, authority, or rising-generation voice. That's why approval doesn't guarantee ownership.

Many leadership decisions are difficult not because the facts are unavailable, but because the stakes are high, the perspectives are incomplete, and the people involved may see the situation differently.

My session explored a question that comes up often in family enterprises and family offices: What happens when the same investment is viewed through very different lenses?

AI may give advisory teams time back

A Blueprint for Multi-Generational Success For many years, succession in family enterprises was framed as a baton pass: identify the successor, transfer authority, move forward. As families grow more complex — with overlapping generations, broader ownership, and longer careers — that model no longer captures what continuity actually requires. Part 1 of The UHNW Institute’s new whitepaper, A Blueprint for Multi-Generational Success, explores a structural shift from “one” to “

I’m grateful to the editors at FamilyBusiness.Org for publishing my new article on how leadership readiness develops across generations in enterprising families. In conversations with founders and senior leaders, I often hear a quiet tension: a desire to prepare the next generation for greater responsibility while also protecting the principles and decisions that built the enterprise. On the other side, rising leaders often want to contribute more, but aren’t always sure how

In my latest piece, I explore how advisors can shift from giving advice to building confidence—especially when working with enterprising families navigating complexity, transition, and uncertainty. The article offers practical strategies for fostering capability and trust across generations. You can read it here: Thanks for reading. Paul