‘The Four Fundamentals of Family Prosperity’ by Nicholas Charles
“90 % of wealthy families lose their wealth within 3 generations and 70% lose their wealth within 2 generations”
Explaining these damning statistics and how to overcome them is what this book delivers.
Beyond the shocking statistics that 90 % of families will lose their wealth within 3 generations, the next most surprising fact is that 95% of the reasons for this loss of wealth has absolutely nothing to do with having great financial knowledge or great professional financial advice. The book reveals how loss or growth of inherited wealth is determined mostly by effective communication and communication structures, effective wealth education that including the next generations emotional relationship with wealth. Most of all, in line with my own thought leadership philosophy, it is vital to have a purposeful vision that is bigger than the family itself.
I am blessed to have met and even worked with a few of the authors whose books I have previously reviewed. Earlier this years whilst discussing the ‘Family Vision’ aspect with the author Nicholas Charles whilst he was still writing the book, I suggested that I might review it to my Book of the Month subscribers. He was delighted and offered anyone of my Book of The Month subscribers a Kindle copy of his insightful book for only 0.99… you only need to go to http://amzn.eu/d/3RqZ3xD (if prompted enter the time limited promo code ‘family’).
As suggested by the title of the book, Nicholas Charles shares what he calls ‘The Four Fundamentals of Family Prosperity’. He explains that in order to be in the 10% of families that retain and grow their wealth for multiple generations you need to have ALL 4 of these fundamental components in place. If one of these fundamentals is inadequate or missing your family is statistically doomed to lose any significant wealth created by previous generations!
Over the years I have heard many stories about lottery winners who within 10 years or so were broke again. In fact, inherited wealth seems to have some similarities to lottery winners, probably best summed up by my favorite quote highlighted in the book by William K Vanderbilt the penniless grandson of the man who behind the richest family in history (who in the 1900s were worth in real term over $100 Billion) who said “Inherited wealth is a real handicap to happiness. It is a certain death to ambition as cocaine is to morality.”
The author identifies why this is true for so many families, not just the super-rich, but any family that is passing any significant level of wealth down to the next generation.
Nicholas Charles draws on both his extensive professional experiences and that of his own family. He shares stories of families who had incredibly sound professional advice but, after the parents had passed on (and sometimes before) the children have ended up falling out and in court suing each other, not only destroying the family’s wealth but destroying the family itself!
Nicholas Charles shares how he has seen the famous saying ‘shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in 3 generations’ play out in his own family history. His great-grandfather’s hard-earned wealth was all gone by the time his father was 8 years old. In the case of his family, his dad from humble beginnings was able to start the process all over again becoming ‘first generation wealth’. Nicholas is acutely aware that he is ‘second generation wealth’ and the statistical implications of that to him and his children, which has driven him to understand this multi-generational wealth problem and inspired him to share with others how to solve it like no-one else before him. Don’t forget you get a Kindle copy of the book for only 0.99 by using the link… http://amzn.eu/d/3RqZ3xD, when you are prompted, enter the time limited discount promo code ‘family’.