Planning for Multi-Generational Families

Building Structures That Preserve Wealth, Values, and Family Cohesion Across Generations

Your family’s wealth was not created in a single generation, and it should not be planned for in a single conversation. Multi-generational wealth creates challenges that are fundamentally different from those facing a first-generation wealth creator: the structures are more complex, the family dynamics involve more people and more branches, the trusts may be decades old, and the question of purpose—what this wealth is for—becomes as important as the question of how to preserve it.

Boland Law Group has served multi-generational families for over 50 years. Many of our client relationships began with the wealth creators and now continue with their children and grandchildren. That institutional memory—our understanding of a family’s history, its values, its structures, and its dynamics—is something that cannot be replicated by a new engagement with a new firm. It is one of the most valuable things we offer.

The Planning Landscape for Multi-Generational Families

Dynasty Trust Review and Modernization

If your family’s wealth is held in trusts created a generation or more ago, those instruments may not reflect current tax law, current family circumstances, or current planning techniques. Trust modification, decanting, reformation, and strategic restatement can modernize existing structures without the tax cost of termination and redistribution. We review existing trusts with fresh eyes and recommend modifications that improve performance, flexibility, and alignment with the family’s current goals.

Family Governance

As the family grows—from a couple to a nuclear family to an extended family with multiple branches—the informal decision-making that worked in earlier generations becomes insufficient. Questions about investment strategy, distributions, philanthropy, family employment, and the direction of the family enterprise require formal structures: family councils, advisory boards, investment committees, and decision-making protocols. We help families design governance frameworks that are appropriate to their size, their values, and their tolerance for formality—and that evolve as the family grows.

Next-Generation Education and Preparation

Wealth without preparation is a burden, not a gift. The most thoughtful families we serve invest deliberately in preparing their children and grandchildren for the responsibilities that accompany significant wealth: financial literacy, fiduciary duty, philanthropic stewardship, and the psychological complexity of inherited wealth. We help families design educational programs, structured involvement in governance, and mentorship frameworks that prepare the next generation—not just financially, but in their capacity to carry the family’s values forward.

Trust Protectors and Distribution Committees

Long-duration trusts benefit from built-in adaptability—the ability to respond to changes the original grantor could not have predicted. Trust protectors, distribution committees, and investment advisors written into trust instruments provide this flexibility while maintaining appropriate oversight. We design these roles and the powers associated with them to balance adaptability with accountability across decades of change.

Managing Dynamics Across Branches

As generations multiply, so do the potential sources of misunderstanding, resentment, and conflict. Different branches may have different financial needs, different levels of involvement in the family enterprise, and different perspectives on how wealth should be managed and distributed. We have observed these dynamics across five decades of practice, and we understand how to design planning structures that anticipate and mitigate them—through clear documentation, equitable distribution frameworks, and communication protocols that keep the family aligned.

Family Meetings and Communication

The families that preserve wealth successfully across generations are the ones that communicate deliberately. Regular family meetings—structured with agendas, facilitation, and clear objectives—are the single most effective tool for maintaining alignment and preventing conflict. We help families establish meeting frameworks, develop age-appropriate content for younger family members, and create a cadence of communication that keeps everyone informed and invested in the family’s shared purpose.

The Long-Term Question

What do you want this wealth to mean for your family in 2060? In 2080? This is the question that separates adequate planning from transformative planning. The legal structures—trusts, entities, governance documents—are tools in service of a deeper intention. We help families articulate that intention, embed it in their planning documents, and build systems that give it the best possible chance of enduring long after the current generation is gone.