Compared with the number of books on the subject of helping families organize their financial affairs, relatively few books focus on working with high net-worth families. James Hughes Jr.’s Family: The compact among generations does — and goes a step further.

By addressing the dynamics of wealthy families that have endured or have the potential to endure for generations, Hughes has distinguished himself. Although you can assume that families that prosper for four, five, six or seven generations are, by definition, ultra-high net-worth households, the lessons in this book can be applied at all social levels.

Underpinning the book’s message is the Chinese proverb: “From shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations.” This means that in the first generation, material wealth is created; in the second, it is managed; and, in the third, it is dissipated.

Hughes describes this process as a journey and contends that families that fail to understand the nature of that journey are doomed to the fate outlined in the proverb.

Alternatively, he maintains that families that consciously nurture their human assets and use their financial capital to do so have a chance of defying the odds.

Having established this concept, the book goes on to describe, in eloquent prose, the progression of the family from its start as an affinity of two people to the basic family unit to a clan of numerous families and, ultimately, if successful, to a tribe of multiple clans. At each stage, members have to accept intergenerational responsibility to ensure the family’s longevity. These include:

> assisting each member to achieve his or her highest level of happiness;

> a reciprocal commitment to preserving the family as a whole;

> bringing new, regenerative energy into the family;

> having a “beginner’s mind” open to new thoughts; and

> engaging in “seventh-generation thinking” by honouring the decisions of past generations and making current decisions with a view to generations to come.

Hughes draws on a wide range of philosophy, history, folklore, mythology, religious dogma, social anthropology, psychology, academic theory and personal experience. For example, he introduces the ancient Greek concept of hubris to illustrate the negative impact of an overwhelming ego on a family.

In similar fashion, he calls on the lessons of religions, including Hinduism (Shiva, creator and destroyer of life; Vishnu, preserver of life), Judaism (concepts of altruism and philanthropy) and Christianity (parables of the Prodigal Son and the Good Samaritan). For modern references, he turns to Carl Jung (integration of male and female sides of the human personality to become a whole person), Abraham Maslow (the hierarchy of human needs leading to self-actualization) and Gail Sheehy (Passages: Predictable crises of adult life).

I was initially overwhelmed by this flood of citations and even a little annoyed. I wondered when I’d get to the meat of the book. But, as I progressed, I gained appreciation for Hughes’ enormous ability to filter and apply this collective wisdom to the family unit.

For example, most societies — other than our Western one — hold their elders in esteem and look to them not only for insight and guidance but also to perpetuate the value system. A family that hopes to endure must accommodate the evolution of its elders from doing to being and giving back. Cultural anthropology teaches us that successful tribes have entrusted their elders with the tribe’s sacred authority for such thing as:

> mediating disputes;

> advising the tribe when members are not following family rules;

> telling the tribe’s stories; and

> maintaining tribal traditions.

Vesting modern-day elders with these authorities would create a powerful family governance system. Governance usually implies giving up some personal freedom for the good of a group that acts according to a “social compact” that benefits all.

All advisors could benefit from the insights of Family: The compact among generations. But few readers will appreciate Hughes’ erudite language and may object to the absence of an easy-to-follow checklist that allows readers to become instant experts in advising multi-generational families. I encourage readers to be patient and reflective. There is a lot of practical advice in this book. Seek it out and apply it to your practice. IE