Family wealth and wealth planning

You may want to preserve wealth for the future, support your children or invest in new opportunities. Within your family, those ambitions may differ. Which choices do you make together, and how much freedom should each family member have to follow their own path?

RSM helps you discuss these ambitions and structure your family wealth accordingly. We advise on wealth planning and wealth transfer and help you make clear agreements about decision-making and responsibilities. We can also support you after the sale of your family business, when you want to reconsider what you want to achieve with your wealth.

What does wealth mean to your family?

For one family member, wealth may represent financial security. For another, it may provide the freedom to invest in a business or support a social initiative. When wealth is shared within a family, it is important to discuss which goals you have in common and where there should be room for individual choices.

We facilitate discussions about what your family wants to preserve, develop or pass on. These shared principles provide direction for your wealth planning and for the way decisions are made.

Who makes decisions about your family wealth?

As wealth becomes spread across more family members and generations, responsibilities also change. Alongside building and preserving wealth, greater attention may be needed for wealth transfer and the involvement of future owners.

RSM helps your family make agreements on:

• Who is responsible for what and who has decision-making authority.
• Which information family members receive.
• How future generations are prepared for their role.
• Which decisions are made collectively and which are made individually.
• Which responsibilities you manage yourselves and where external support is needed.

We align these agreements with your wealth objectives and any existing family governance arrangements.

From wealth objectives to wealth planning

You may want to understand how best to organise your wealth for your own future and that of your family. Perhaps you want to transfer part of your wealth while retaining sufficient financial flexibility for yourself. Or you may want to combine shared investments with the individual plans of family members.

We assess how these ambitions relate to one another and advise on the structure and transfer of your wealth. Our financial and tax specialists work together to provide an integrated approach.

If you are considering gifting or passing on wealth, our estate planning specialists can advise you on the options and implications, taking your personal circumstances into account.

Wealth after the sale of your family business

After the sale of a family business, the relationship between the family, the business and the family’s wealth changes. Family members may need to reconsider what they still want to do together. This may involve joint investments, room for individual plans or responsibility for managing the family’s wealth.

We support your family in these discussions. Based on your shared objectives, we advise on the structure of the wealth, the allocation of responsibilities and the practical implementation.

How can RSM support you with family office services?

Through our family office services, we help you organise your family wealth. We consider both the wealth itself and the family members and owners behind it. We can support you with financial information and the coordination of tax and legal matters, as well as family councils, family charters and agreements on consultation and decision-making.

Together, we discuss which responsibilities your family wants to retain and where support is needed. You decide which family office services you want RSM to provide and how we work alongside your other advisers.

Discuss the future of your family wealth

Would you like to define shared wealth objectives, prepare for a wealth transfer or organise your wealth after the sale of a family business? We would be pleased to discuss which choices are most relevant to your family.