把经验财富留给子孙

When Doug Regan's clients imagine passing their wealth on to their heirs, they often experience two emotions: Fear and anxiety. “Fear and anxiety that the money will negatively impact, or not positively impact, [on] their children and grandchildren; fear that money will take away the human driver of achieving success through hard work,” says the Northern Trust executive.

In an era when the proclivities of dilettantish young heiresses are laid bare on the internet, it is unsurprising that many of the ultra-wealthy are experiencing such emotions.

But like the industrial and financial barons of a bygone era, who attempted to enshrine their munificence, however belatedly, in the philanthropic projects they left behind, today's entrepreneurs are just as determined, if not more so, to encode their offspring with the values that engendered their own fortunes.

Some family heads have resorted to ghost-written biographies describing their ascent from garage-based entrepreneur to conglomerate chairman. But such tomes risk becoming outdated documents of nothing but historical interest. Others have hired filmmakers to produce feature-length video biographies. Private banks, too, are trying novel approaches to help clients inculcate their values in succeeding generations.

Mr Regan, president of Northern Trust's wealth management group (where clients have a minimum net worth of $200m), says surveys and informal interaction revealed a growing unrest between the first and third generations.

The biggest concern, he says, was the fear that without the need to work, the heirs wouldn't do anything worthy.

Warren Buffett, the billionaire investor, alluded to this in a 1986 interview. Asked how much he would leave his children, he said: “Enough money so that they would feel they could do anything, but not so much that they could do nothing.”

The wealth management group at Northern Trust has responded to client concerns with a number of strategies, including an intranet site where families will be able to share concerns securely. Already running is “Inspiring Human Capital”, a day-long course that addresses some of the more intangible, non-financial issues that accompany wealth, with an emphasis on values.

The programme, says Mr Regan, aims “to help families focus less on being wealthy people and more on being people who happen to be wealthy. In many ways, money is simply a tool to do other things and this programme helps our families focus on what those other things could be.”

Demand for these courses stems partly from a long period of wealth creation coupled with demographic trends, as many first generation entrepreneurs are now in their 50s or 60s. It is also a result of societal factors.

“This generation is more introspective. A lot of [them] grew up with middle-class values. Now they have to figure out how to raise kids with middle-class values when they're no longer middle class,” says Ellen Perry, a former family office head with training in psychology and founder of Wealthbridge Partners, a consulting firm. She is helping Northern Trust run the course.

The need for such programmes isn't lost on Mr Regan. In a 20-plus-year career in wealth management, he has seen it all: the multi-billion-dollar family whose warring factions haven't spoken for three generations; brothers who brawled over assets; and the recurrent theme of “grandchildren who curry favour with Grandma”.

Running in four cities – New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Atlanta – the “Inspiring Human Capital” programme usually hosts about 12 families, with two to four people from the first and second generation represented. It begins with what Mr Regan calls an “ice-breaking” dinner, where participants trade urbane conversation about trips taken, business ventures and their favourite aircraft.

The next morning, the course proper begins with Ms Perry's overview of the pressing issues facing families of wealth.

Clients learn that all family dynamics are challenging, and that “when you throw a large sum of money on top of that dynamic, it becomes combustible”, says Mr Regan. Next, he says, “We talk about money as a magnifier.”

Money, he adds, gives you the privilege or burden of living your values. It also tends to amplify character traits. If you're inclined to generosity, you will become a philanthropist. If you're a workaholic, money won't sate your desire to work; you'll probably work harder.

Next, the programme uses a series of exercises to help clients identify important occasions and emotional touchstones of their lives. Either paired off or placed in small groups, the attendees begin telling three-minute stories about themselves.

While hailing from different backgrounds, geographies and business lines, they share such common denominators as the anxiety and challenge that come with wealth. The participants become very candid, says Mr Regan, and the process of sharing reveals “some of the most intimate and scarify- ing details imaginable”.

What it also does is begin to lay the bedrock for why they are here: to identify the values important to them and then build these into a story that can be passed down the generations.

Part of Ms Perry's role is to help clients separate values from preferences. Compassion, honesty and generosity are values, she says, while politics is a preference. She warns that passing on a narrow set of preferences is a slippery slope. “The less diversity in your family, the less flexibility.”

After lunch, participants are introduced to a professional storyteller who tells a few tales of her own and then breaks down the rudiments of how a good story is told. “She uses passion and style, and people are drawn in,” says Mr Regan. “And it gives the client the elements for when the inevitable question – ‘Why are we so rich?' – comes, and our clients can answer in a cogent and meaningful way.”

A hundred years ago, it might have taken a trip to Newport, Rhode Island, for the Vanderbilt scion to gauge the family's wealth. Today, says Mr Regan, “parents can't say ‘that's none of your business' when their children ask how much they make. They can just open the Forbes 400 or Google their mother or father and find out exactly what they earn.”

Mr Regan says client feedback has been positive, especially among those who didn't grow up sharing values but for whom they were self-evident – the “You woke up, you went to work” types. And both he and Ms Perry hope that the course will also help Northern Trust clients realign their interests.

“People spend a lot of time on estate planning,” Ms Perry says. “But the actions and the stories we tell our children and grandchildren are far more important.”

当道格•里根(Doug Regan)的客户们想到将财富传给子孙的时候，他们通常会有两种情绪：害怕和忧虑。身为北美信托银行(Northern Trust)财富管理集团总裁，里根对此表示：“（他们）害怕或忧虑金钱会对子孙产生消极影响，或不能产生积极影响；害怕金钱会让子孙失去通过努力工作获得成功的人生动力。”

如今这个时代，年轻的继承人往往处于一知半解的状态，这一倾向已经赤裸裸地暴露在互联网上。因此，很多超级富豪们出现上述情绪并不令人奇怪。

但就像昔日的实业巨头和金融大亨试图将他们的慷慨（虽然姗姗来迟）铭刻在他们留下的慈善项目上一样，今天的企业家们也一样坚定地（其程度有过之而无不及）准备将造就他们成功的价值观灌输给后辈。

一些家长们选择请人代笔撰写自传，讲述他们从车库里的创业者到集团企业董事长的发展之路。但这类大部头著作面临的风险是：它们可能沦为过时的文献，除了其历史意义外，一无是处。其它一些家长请来电影摄制人员，拍摄了长篇的视频自传。私人银行也在尝试各种新奇的方法，来帮助客户向后辈反复灌输他们的价值观。

在北美信托银行财富管理集团，每个客户的财富净值至少2亿美元。里根表示，针对客户的调查和非正式接触表明，第一代和第三代人之间的不安状态正在升温。

里根说，客户们最大的担忧就是，他们害怕继承人由于不需要工作，因此不会去做任何值得去做的事。

亿万富翁投资者沃伦•巴菲特(Warren Buffett)在1986年的一次采访中谈到过这一点。当被问及他将给孩子们留下多少钱的时候，他说：“会给他们足够的钱，让他们感觉可以做任何事，但不会多到让他们可以不做任何事。”

针对客户的担心，北美信托银行的财富管理集团采取了多种策略，其中包括一个企业内部网络，富豪家族可以在这里安全地交流其担心的问题。为期一天的“鼓舞人心的人力资本”(Inspiring Human Capital)课程已经在运作，该课程主要解决一些无形的、伴随财富而产生的非财务性问题，侧重价值观教育。

里根表示，该课程旨在“帮助财富家族少强调富人身份，更多地强调偶然致富。在很多方面，钱不过是用来做其它事情的工具，这项课程帮助我们的富豪家族聚焦于可以做哪些这样的‘其它事情'。”

这一课程的市场需求，部分来自于一个长期的财富创造过程，以及人口结构的变化趋势，因为许多第一代创业者如今已年逾50或60。这一需求也是各种社会因素的结果。

“这一代人更喜欢自省。他们之中，很多人是在中产阶级价值观中长大的。现在他们必须弄清楚的是，当他们不再属于中产阶级时，该如何用中产阶级的价值观来养育子女，”曾担任私人银行家庭办公室(family office)负责人的艾伦•佩里(Ellen Perry)说。心理学科班出身的佩里是咨询公司Wealthbridge Partners的创始人，正在帮助北美信托银行运作上述课程。

此类课程的必要性并未让里根沉湎其中。在他20多年的财富管理职业生涯中，他看到的故事太多了：拥有数十亿资产的家族内部敌对派系接连三代不相来往；兄弟间激烈争夺遗产；“孙子拍奶奶马屁”的故事屡见不鲜。

“鼓舞人心的人力资本”课程在纽约、芝加哥、洛杉矶和亚特兰大等四个城市开课。该课程通常接待约12个家庭，由2至4名来自第一代和第二代的家庭成员出席。课程以里根所谓的“破冰”晚宴开始，由参与者围绕旅行、商业投资和他们钟爱的飞机来进行彬彬有礼地交谈。

第二天上午，严格意义上的课程开始了，由佩里对富豪家族面临的紧迫性问题进行全面论述。

客户们将认识到，所有的家族动态因素都具有挑战性，而“当你再把一大笔钱加入其中后，它们就成了可燃物。”接下来，“我们讨论金钱作为放大器的问题，”他说。

他补充道，金钱给了你实现价值的特权或负担。它往往还会放大你的性格特征。如果你天性慷慨，你将成为一个慈善家；如果你是个工作狂，金钱将不会满足你的工作欲望，你可能会更加努力的工作。

接下来，课程中将通过一系列练习来帮助客户识别他们人生中的重要场合和情感标准。通过结对合作或小组合作的方式，参加者开始用三分钟时间讲述他们自己的故事。

虽然参加者的背景、地区和行业各不相同，但他们仍拥有共同的地方，比如焦虑及财富带来的挑战等。里根表示，参加者将变得非常诚实，故事分享的过程透露了“一些人们所能想到的最私密、最令人心惊的细节”。

这一过程还为他们参加该课程的目的打下基础：识别对他们而言重要的价值观，然后将之融入一个能够代代相传的故事中去。

佩里的部分作用在于帮助客户将价值观同偏好区分开来。她说，热情、正直和慷慨属于价值观范畴，而政见则是一种偏好。她警告称，传承一套狭隘的偏好是一种灾难性的滑坡现象。“你的家庭多样性程度越低，其灵活性也就越低。”

午餐后，一位专业的讲故事者被介绍给学员，她将讲一些自己的故事，然后详细介绍讲一个好故事的入门知识。“她将展示热情和风格的力量，然后大家就被吸引住了，”里根说。“此举让客户在面对一个不可避免的问题（为何我们如此富裕）时有了基本主张，我们的客户能够以令人信服且有意义的方式来回答这个问题。”

100年前，范德比尔特(Vanderbilt)的继承人或许会选择前往纽波特(Newport)、罗得岛(Rhode Island)等地旅行，以彰显其家族的财富。里根表示，如今，“当孩子们询问父母赚了多少钱的时候，父母已不能用‘不关你的事'来回答了。孩子们只要打开《福布斯》(Forbes)富豪榜，或者在谷歌(Google)上搜索父亲或母亲的信息，他们就会发现父母究竟挣了多少钱。”

里根说，客户们反馈回来的信息非常积极，尤其是那些自身并非在共享价值中长大、但其奋斗本身就是良好榜样的客户，即那些“起早贪黑工作”的客户。里根和佩里都希望，该课程也将帮助北美信托银行的客户重新调整他们的兴趣。

“人们在财产规划方面耗费大把时间，”佩里说，“但行动以及我们对第二代和第三代所讲的故事，要比财产规划重要得多。”