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Thursday, November 12
Building stronger Families Across Generations
Building stronger Families Across Generations
Amy Szostak, Northern Trust
Wealthy families have a unique opportunity to shape future generations through shared assets — whether a family business, trusts, or a liquid portfolio. Yet as wealth and complexity grow, family dynamics play an increasingly important role in achieving long-term goals and, when left to chance, can lead to unintended consequences.
Wealthy families have a unique opportunity to shape future generations through shared assets — whether a family business, trusts, or a liquid portfolio. Yet as wealth and complexity grow, family dynamics play an increasingly important role in achieving long-term goals and, when left to chance, can lead to unintended consequences.
Drawing on a five-step framework for navigating family dynamics, this session explores how families can build healthier patterns of communication and greater unity across generations. Grounded in real-world experience and informed by insights from psychology and neuroscience, the discussion will connect each step to practical actions families can take to strengthen relationships and intentionally cultivate an enduring family culture that supports the family, its enterprises, and its legacy.
Drawing on a five-step framework for navigating family dynamics, this session explores how families can build healthier patterns of communication and greater unity across generations. Grounded in real-world experience and informed by insights from psychology and neuroscience, the discussion will connect each step to practical actions families can take to strengthen relationships and intentionally cultivate an enduring family culture that supports the family, its enterprises, and its legacy.
FROM fourth GENERATION TO first: rebuilding a family legacy
FROM fourth GENERATION TO first: rebuilding a family legacy
León Morgenstern, Captiva Containers
What happens when the family business you expected to inherit is no longer there? Leon Morgenstern grew up expecting to become the fourth generation of a longstanding family business. But circumstances in his home country closed that path before he had a chance to follow it. In 2013, he and his siblings came together in the U.S. to build what would become Captiva Containers.
Starting again in a new country, they drew on the values, instincts, and lessons inherited from previous generations while confronting the realities of building a business from scratch.
Through the Captiva story, this session explores what we carry forward when the business itself cannot be passed down — the values that became the foundation for something new, the advice they heard but didn’t always follow, and the lessons they had to learn for themselves as entrepreneurs. A story of resilience, reinvention, and how a family legacy can endure even when its form completely changes.
The Stories We Inherit, The Legacy We Choose
The Stories We Inherit, The Legacy We Choose
Dr. Edith Shiro, Clinical Psychologist
What if the stories we inherit do not have to be the stories we repeat?
What if the stories we inherit do not have to be the stories we repeat?
Our family histories, values, beliefs, cultural experiences, and emotional patterns shape us across generations, often in ways we may not fully recognize. Through the lens of post-traumatic growth, this session explores how greater awareness of what we inherit can help us decide what we want to preserve, what we may choose to change, and what new meaning we can create from difficult experiences.
Our family histories, values, beliefs, cultural experiences, and emotional patterns shape us across generations, often in ways we may not fully recognize. Through the lens of post-traumatic growth, this session explores how greater awareness of what we inherit can help us decide what we want to preserve, what we may choose to change, and what new meaning we can create from difficult experiences.
By understanding — and sometimes learning to tell — our stories differently, we can break patterns, deepen intergenerational connections, and become more intentional about the legacy we carry forward.
By understanding — and sometimes learning to tell — our stories differently, we can break patterns, deepen intergenerational connections, and become more intentional about the legacy we carry forward.
The Stories We Tell Ourselves: Narrative Risk in Family Enterprises and the Role of Independent Advisors
The Stories We Tell Ourselves: Narrative Risk in Family Enterprises and the Role of Independent Advisors
Alicia Gerrits de Sola, Sam Judd, Rick Roeding, Jr.
Family enterprises are shaped not only by strategy and financial performance, but by the stories families tell themselves about their history, identity, and future. These narratives can provide strength and direction, but they can also create blind spots when assumptions go unexamined.
Family enterprises are shaped not only by strategy and financial performance, but by the stories families tell themselves about their history, identity, and future. These narratives can provide strength and direction, but they can also create blind spots when assumptions go unexamined.
Viewing the family enterprise as an interconnected system — spanning operating businesses, investments, philanthropy, family office, and estate structures — this session explores how independent advisors can bring objectivity, challenge assumptions, and speak truth to power. Through real-world examples, we’ll examine how families can strengthen transparency, communication, and governance, navigate complex risks, and build complementary advisory teams that support better decisions and long-term continuity.
Viewing the family enterprise as an interconnected system — spanning operating businesses, investments, philanthropy, family office, and estate structures — this session explores how independent advisors can bring objectivity, challenge assumptions, and speak truth to power. Through real-world examples, we’ll examine how families can strengthen transparency, communication, and governance, navigate complex risks, and build complementary advisory teams that support better decisions and long-term continuity.
Designing a Legacy That Will Last
Designing a Legacy That Will Last
Matt Allen, Kellogg School of Management
Legacy matters deeply to family enterprises, but what makes a legacy meaningful — and how can families intentionally build one that endures across generations?
Legacy matters deeply to family enterprises, but what makes a legacy meaningful — and how can families intentionally build one that endures across generations?
Drawing on new research from the John L. Ward Center for Family Enterprises, this session explores what legacy really means, how it takes shape over time, and the choices families can make to carry it forward. Combining the latest research with interactive exercises, participants will have an opportunity to reflect on their own family’s legacy and put key concepts into practice. The session will offer a practical framework for moving beyond simply preserving what came before to intentionally shaping a legacy that remains meaningful and relevant for generations to come.
Drawing on new research from the John L. Ward Center for Family Enterprises, this session explores what legacy really means, how it takes shape over time, and the choices families can make to carry it forward. Combining the latest research with interactive exercises, participants will have an opportunity to reflect on their own family’s legacy and put key concepts into practice. The session will offer a practical framework for moving beyond simply preserving what came before to intentionally shaping a legacy that remains meaningful and relevant for generations to come.
FAMILY VISITS | AFTERNOON
FAMILY VISITS | AFTERNOON
Following the Day 1 sessions, participants will have the opportunity to visit either Captiva Containers or Goldman Properties – Wynwood Walls, experiencing firsthand two of the businesses and stories featured in the program.
Following the Day 1 sessions, participants will have the opportunity to visit either Captiva Containers or Goldman Properties – Wynwood Walls, experiencing firsthand two of the businesses and stories featured in the program.
Advance RSVP is required.
Advance RSVP is required.
See the Family Visits page for further details..
See the Family Visits page for further details..
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