Planning for Multi-Generational Families
Built by one generation. Guided into the next. Written for the ones after that.
A first fortune asks how to grow. A second asks how to govern. By the third, the instruments are older than some of their beneficiaries, the family has branches instead of a trunk, and the hardest question is no longer how to keep the wealth but what the wealth is for. Boland Law Group has spent more than fifty years inside that question, and many of the families who first engaged us as wealth creators are represented today by their children and grandchildren.
One family, on one line
Generational planning fails when it treats the family as a snapshot. We plan it as a line: every structure we draft has to serve four constituencies at once, and only two of them are in the room.
The founders
Made the wealth, and signed instruments that may now be decades old. Their trusts deserve review with fresh eyes, not reverence.
The stewards
Hold the wealth now. Governance, distributions, the family enterprise, and the peace between branches sit with them.
The rising
Will inherit it. Preparation is the difference between a gift and a burden, and it does not happen by accident.
The unwritten
Do not exist yet, and are owed structures flexible enough to meet them well when they arrive.
A new firm can read your documents. It cannot remember your family.
Fifty years of files is not the asset. Fifty years of understanding is: which branch holds the ranch and why, what the founder meant by the clause everyone debates, which grandchild has been sitting quietly in family meetings since she was sixteen. That memory compounds the way the wealth does, and it is one of the few parts of your planning that cannot be bought new.
We know the weight of it from the inside. BLG is itself a father and son practice: two generations of Boland attorneys advising families on wealth that is meant to outlast them both.
- The first engagement
- The founders
- Their children
- Their grandchildren
Seven disciplines of generational planning
Every family arrives holding a different mix of these. Few need all seven at once; across the decades, most touch every one.
Dynasty trusts, reviewed and renewed
Instruments drafted a generation ago rarely reflect current tax law, current family circumstances, or current technique. Decanting, modification, reformation, and strategic restatement can bring an old trust to modern standards without the tax cost of tearing it down and starting over. We read existing instruments the way an engineer reads an old bridge: with respect, and with a load test.
- Decanting and modification
- Reformation and restatement
- Trustee and situs review
Family governance
Somewhere between the second generation and the third, dinner-table decision-making stops working. Investment policy, distributions, philanthropy, family employment: each needs a forum, a protocol, and a record. We design councils, committees, and charters sized to your family’s scale and its appetite for formality, and built to grow as the family does.
- Family councils and charters
- Investment and distribution committees
- Employment and conflict protocols
The next generation, prepared
Wealth without preparation is a burden dressed as a gift. The families who keep both their fortune and their cohesion invest early in the rising generation: financial literacy, fiduciary duty, the craft of philanthropy, and the particular psychology of inheriting what you did not build. We help design that curriculum, and the graduated responsibilities that make it real.
- Stewardship education
- Graduated governance roles
- Mentorship frameworks
Protectors and committees
A trust drafted to run for ninety years will meet laws, markets, and family members its grantor never imagined. Trust protectors, distribution committees, and named investment advisors give a long instrument a living hand on the wheel, with powers drawn carefully enough that adaptability never becomes a quiet transfer of control.
- Trust protector design
- Distribution committee powers
- Succession for the roles themselves
The peace between branches
Every generation multiplies the branches, and every branch develops its own needs, its own involvement, and its own view of what the wealth is for. Most generational conflict is structural before it is personal. We design for it in advance: clear documentation, equitable frameworks, and protocols that let branches differ without dividing.
- Equitable distribution frameworks
- Branch representation in governance
- Intent, documented
The family meeting
The most effective wealth-preservation tool we have observed in five decades of practice is not a trust. It is a well-run family meeting: held on a calendar, with an agenda, real facilitation, and content the sixteen-year-olds can follow. We help families build that cadence, and keep it.
- Meeting design and facilitation
- Age-appropriate materials
- A communication calendar
The 2080 question
What should this wealth mean to people who will read your documents long after you are gone? That is the question that separates adequate planning from durable planning. The trusts and entities are tools; the intention is the work. We help families put the intention into words, and then into instruments built to carry it.
- Statements of purpose and legacy letters
- Intent embedded in the instruments
- Structures that hold the point
A two-generation firm, for multi-generational families
Your matter is handled by the partners you meet, and both hold the LL.M. degree.
Robert W. Boland, Jr., J.D., LL.M.
Founding & Tax Partner
The counsel families have trusted across five decades of Arizona practice, from the first estate plan to the structures their grandchildren now rely on.
Read his biographyGrant M. Boland, J.D., LL.M.
Tax & Estate Planning Partner
Carrying the practice forward with the same client families, so the relationship your children inherit is already in its second generation of counsel.
Read his biographyWe work as counsel within your team, alongside family offices, investment advisors, and accountants, not in place of them.
The long horizon
Keep scrolling. The year keeps pace.
The documents we draft today will be read aloud in rooms we will never enter, to people we will never meet. We write them for that room.
Questions families bring us
Rarely. Decanting, modification, reformation, and strategic restatement can usually bring an existing trust to modern standards without the tax cost of terminating it and redistributing. The first step is a careful reading of what you already have, with fresh eyes.
Yes, if it is designed to. Most branch conflict is structural before it is personal: unclear documentation, uneven information, and no forum where decisions get made. Governance frameworks and equitable distribution structures let branches differ without dividing the family.
Earlier than most families expect, in roles sized to their age: observation before participation, participation before authority. We help families design that progression, along with education and materials that make each stage meaningful rather than ceremonial.
As counsel within the team, not a replacement for it. We regularly work alongside family offices, investment advisors, and accountants, and we serve family offices directly as well.
This page is provided for general information and does not constitute legal or tax advice, nor does it create an attorney-client relationship. Descriptions of our practice areas are general in nature, and prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. No engagement is formed unless and until a written engagement letter is executed and any required fees are paid and cleared.