big-canyon-advisors

Why we Need Family Meetings

Tue, 17 Mar 2026 14:50:12 GMT

A client recently told us, “The younger generation is just too busy. It’s hard to get everyone together for family meetings.” Another client said, “We used to meet annually. They were great meetings. But we skipped a year due to scheduling conflicts. It’s now been four years since our last meeting.” A third client told us, “We don’t really hold family meetings. We spend a week each year at our vacation home. That’s basically a family meeting.”

These recent conversations are a helpful reminder that, from time to time, it pays to revisit both the why and the how of family meetings . Why do we hold them? And how do we make them meaningful? Let’s explore.

Why hold family meetings

An annual family meeting is a conscious choice:

To be intentional rather than reactive
To be connected rather than merely adjacent
To be aligned instead of drifting

Core reasons families choose to plan such a gathering.

Legacy . Let’s define our future legacy and do all we can to put it in place. The money you leave your children is only half the story. Your children themselves – their character, their relationships, their actions – are the other half. When a family gathers to review its vision and values, it is shaping the culture and character of future generations. That intentionality compounds over decades.
Celebration . When preparing for the meeting, organizers should start by asking, “What are we celebrating?” Recognize accomplishments. Highlight milestones. Tell stories of growth, resilience and generosity. If you can’t build a meaningful list of things to celebrate each year, you aren’t looking hard enough. Celebration reinforces a powerful message: we are not just related; we are in this together.
Building Relationships across Generations and Branches . As a family grows into the third generation and beyond, intentional time together becomes critical. Cousins do not naturally develop deep bonds without shared experiences. Shared values and experiences will keep a family together when money, business decisions or differing perspectives create tension. Strong relationships are the real glue.
Communication . Most family conflict does not come from bad intentions, but from unmet (usually unspoken) expectations. Family meetings create space to discuss assumptions, values and expectations before the family is in crisis mode. They also create a structured opportunity for quieter members to speak up rather than deferring to the loudest or oldest voice. When done well, the meeting becomes preventive maintenance for family relationships.
Family governance . Larger families have formal governance mechanisms, while smaller families tend to rely on informal ones. Family meetings are a natural time to communicate what is happening, evaluate what is working, and clarify roles and responsibilities. Clarity reduces friction.
Create shared experiences . This might be bringing in an outside speaker, watching and discussing a TED talk, or having everyone read a book beforehand and discussing it at the meeting. Shared intellectual and emotional experiences shape family culture. They create inside jokes, shared language, and common reference points that endure.
Family history . Re-tell the stories. How did the business start? What risks were taken? What mistakes were made? What almost didn’t work? These conversations allow the older generation to pass on wisdom while they are still here and give the younger generation a chance to ask questions while answers are still available. Stories have the power to shape identity as well as share information.
Have fun . We all want to laugh and have fun. If the meeting isn’t enjoyable, no matter how productive it is, members will find excuses not to attend in the future.

Celebration reinforces a powerful message:
we are not just related; we are in this together.

How to conduct meaningful family meetings

A family meeting should become a tethering point for the family: something consistent that lets everyone know, we are doing this on purpose .

Frequency . Most families meet annually. Some meet semi-annually, while a few meet quarterly. More frequent meetings can make sense in certain seasons – for example, during business transitions or major life events – but sustaining fresh, engaging content becomes harder the more often you meet. If the meeting isn’t enjoyable, attendance will decline.

Length . How large is the family and what do you want to cover? Gathering for days or a week is great, but keep the formal meeting portion as short as possible. For most families, two to four hours is ideal. Larger families with an operating business may require longer sessions, but attention spans are real. Protect them.

Financial discussions – including spouses . This is one of the most common areas of tension. Some families say, “We don’t want to share trust and investment details with the married-ins.” As a result, they either exclude spouses from the meeting or avoid financial discussions entirely. Be careful what message that sends. If spouses are excluded, don’t be surprised if your children end up spending major holidays with their in-laws rather than you. You are sending a clear signal that you don’t consider the married-ins fully part of the family. And consider this: how healthy are your children’s marriages if they don’t share financial details with their spouse after the meeting? In most cases, inclusion strengthens the family.

Financials – the right depth . The other financial topic is some families want the next generation to fully understand every detail of trusts, tax strategies, and investment allocations. This often translates into hours of technical explanation. Most family members are now bored, and less enthusiastic about attending next year. Our rule of thumb is to limit financial reviews to 20 minutes. Provide a clear, high-level update. If someone wants more detail, schedule a separate session. The family meeting should educate, not overwhelm.

Education . We hesitate to use this word, as the younger gen rebels against it and the older gen think it’s only for the younger group. These meetings are a great opportunity to build family vernacular as they all learn something together. Don’t call it education, just tell them it’s team-building or something similar.

Topics . Rotate themes from year to year. Keep the content fresh and interactive. If you bring in outside speakers, choose people who are energetic, engaging and fun.

A family meeting should become
a tethering point for the family: something consistent
that lets everyone know, we are doing this on purpose.

Summary

Every family is different. The structure and content of your meetings should reflect your family’s personality, size and complexity. Two principles apply to everyone:

Legacy is shaped intentionally . Don’t be complacent. Schedule the meeting. Hold the meeting.
Make it worth attending. You can’t force adults to show up, so make it enticing. Design a gathering that people are genuinely glad they attended.

While the meeting may only last a few hours, its impact can reverberate for generations.

A Rose by Another Name?

Would it change the interest level if we just called it something different? The purpose remains the same.

What if it were called: Family Legacy Day … Family Summit … Family Circle … Our Story Summit … The [last name] Forum … Family Fireside Gathering?

There are lots of alternatives (just ask your favorite AI chat), and if a different name helps the messaging, go for it.

Charlie Carr, CFP® is president of Big Canyon Advisors LLC, which advises family businesses and family offices .

How to Manage the Challenges of an Embedded Family Office

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 20:10:34 GMT

Many successful family businesses have a form of family office embedded in the company. It may start with the CFO helping family members with their taxes, or someone in accounting setting up the books for a family member’s outside business, or perhaps someone advising a family member through the purchase of a house or car.

Over time, this often becomes two or three employees supporting the owners’ outside needs, plus one-off support from staff in IT, legal and other departments. Many families don’t think of this as a family office. As one founder told me, “The business is my family office.”

The pitfalls

This is not necessarily a bad thing. A family office embedded in the business can be the most cost-effective way to manage risks to the family while supporting their wealth and endeavors outside the family firm. However, there are several challenges to an embedded office, which require careful management or may even result in the family deciding to separate the office from the business.

Distraction. Business staff should be focused on growing the business and serving its clients. Supporting family members’ personal acquisitions or handling their separate needs may distract company staff from their primary roles. It is difficult for even a senior staff person to explain to one of the owners that an upcoming tax deadline or new technology release won’t leave them time to support the family member’s personal request.

Privacy. When business staff also support the family, t hey may not be as diligent about protecting the family’s privacy as dedicated family office staff would be. They might not be discreet when the president of the company asks about her brother’s personal financial matters, and they might be tempted to tell co-workers about the new sports car a family member is buying.

Fairness . Is it fair when family members who work in the business are able to make greater use of business staff for personal needs than family members who do not work in the business? In some situations, large shareholders don’t have the opportunity to take advantage of business staff, while minority shareholders who work in the business leverage staff extensively.

Risk . A family office should reduce or mitigate risk to the family, perhaps by providing advice and support as family members make large acquisitions, ensuring they have adequate property and casualty insurance or providing technology and cybersecurity support. If family members outside the business are not comfortable using the business staff, then the family isn’t mitigating this risk as intended.

Handling family members' separate needs
may distract company staff from
their primary roles.

Part-time focus. When the family office consists of business staff who support the family on the side, those staffers might not perceive the family office as their full-time job. It is unlikely that anyone is providing stra- tegic planning, being proactive about risk management or even looking at how to most effectively support the family’s needs. For example, someone in accounting may provide paychecks for household staff, but is any- one in the organization performing background checks on those staffers?

Control . An embedded office can fall into a “no man’s land,” where everyone assumes somebody else is provid- ing proper oversight and control. In one case we know of, nobody was reviewing business credit card expenses for the embedded office -- accounting considered the task to be the responsibility of "the chairman's office," and the family had never thought about doing so.

Cost and value . When the family office is embedded and split between parts of the business, nobody knows how much the office really costs. When we identify the various pieces and assign costs to them, owners are often shocked at how much they are spending on a family office. Family members also may not truly appreci- ate or value the services they receive when they don’t know how much they really cost, how much time vari- ous staff put into those services or the level of expertise they are accessing.

An embedded office can fall into a 'no man's land,'
where everyone assumes somebody else is
providing proper oversight and control.

Mitigating the challenges

Embedded family offices can take many forms, and most of the above challenges stem from staff splitting their time between the business and the family. Some offices are embedded within the business legal entity but are actually a separate department or group that is fully dedicated to the family. Such an office can operate as though it were completely separate.

A hybrid version we see involves a small number of staff fully dedicated to the family (perhaps in the CFO’s office), who oversee family requests. These staff in turn may leverage business employees and relevant expertise. This version minimizes the size of the office, provides dedicated staff and still leverages the skills and capabilities of the larger family business. This dedicated team also allows the family to create specific controls, measure costs and focus on key risks involving the family.

In one family office we designed, business staff were clear that they enjoyed providing support for family members — it was different from their day-to-day job, and they didn’t want to lose that. Some hybrid solutions, such as the one described above, can accommodate that desire.

Why some businesses choose to separate the family office

Some people perceive embedded family offices as temporary, filling a need until the family or business is large enough to support a separate entity. That may be true, but not necessarily. Many families maintain an embedded family office for generations, and don’t see any reason to change.

However, there are several reasons that a family may choose to separate the family office from the business . Here are a few such reasons:

The family is planning to take the business public . Such families will want to carve out any personal support as quickly as possible, so advisers and analysts are not confused by the functions. It is extremely rare for a public company to house a family office (although we are aware of a few), and it is not something we recommend.

The family is planning to sell the business . While we often see provisions within such transactions providing the family six months or even more to carve out the family office, there may be value to separating the family office before the transaction is in progress. One such reason is to ensure that staff whom the family wants as part of the family office will not be included in non-solicit arrangements with the new owners. We have seen scenarios where a family wanted the business CFO to run their new family office, but since they didn’t plan it before the sale, they were not able to hire the person.

The family is looking to receive outside funding for the business, perhaps for future growth or liquidity . Depending on the source and amount of such funding, they may be able to maintain an embedded family office, but it is likely that, even if the family maintains control, the new owners will prefer to have personal services separated.

The family decides that its privacy needs are not being met or business staff are being distracted . While there are ways to mitigate these challenges, as described above, the simplest way remains separating the family office from the business. Many families have concluded that these challenges are insurmountable, leading them to a separation.

While there is no definitive research itemizing the number of family offices, embedded or otherwise, we believe there are more embedded offices than separate ones. Carefully considering and balancing the goals and needs of the family and the business enables you to decide if an embedded office can continue to support the needs of both.

Originally published in Family Business Magazine , May 2020

How to Determine Whether Your Family Office is Successful

Sun, 11 Jan 2026 03:48:34 GMT

Last year, someone asked me a simple question that led to quite a bit of thought and discussion: How do I know if my family office is successful ? The most common initial answers (investment returns, tax benefits) feel flippant and incom plete. One former family office president said, “I considered each year a success if I didn’t screw anything up … (long pause) badly.”

What became clear is that very few family members or office leaders had thought about this question. If they measure success at all, their assessment is based on total expenses or investment returns, because these are the easiest factors to quantify.

If you don’t know how to define success, then how can you properly do strategic planning or decide where to focus new resources?

Derailers of success

We believe that most initial responses to this question are derailers of success rather than measures of success. In other words, good performance in these areas does not define success for the office, but poor performance can take the office off the track toward success. Here are a few examples:

Investment returns : Great investment returns generally do not make a family office successful, but messing up investments can make the office a failure. If a large investment flames out, or even if returns significantly trail their benchmarks, the family may place the blame on the office and its leadership.
Taxes : The family office might minimize tax liabilities and provide excellent tax planning, but this may be viewed as just doing its job. Losing an IRS audit or realizing that the family could have saved millions of dollars with better tax planning before selling a business or investment may define failure for the office.
Fraud : Discovering that an employee stole from the family or perhaps uncovering how an outsider successfully committed fraud may make the office appear to be a failure. If there wasn’t any fraud last year, or at least none that you are aware of, the perspective may be that the office did what it was supposed to do. But does that mean it was successful?

If you don't know how to define success,
then how can you properly do strategic planning
or decide where to focus new resources?

Service : Most family office staff will go to extreme lengths to provide any service or support that the family desires. Often, such efforts become expected and don’t constitute success, whereas not doing so may be an irritant or failure in the family’s view.
Total cost : One family member told us he viewed the family office as a bottom-line number: “Do we really need this many people?” We doubt many people consider staying within budget to be their definition of success.

Each of these things may be compared to the starter on your car. When you turn the ignition (or press the button on many cars), you don’t think about whether or not the car will start, unless you recently had problems with it. Being able to start the car doesn’t guarantee that the journey will be successful, but if the car does not start, the journey will likely be a failure.

What is success?

The definition of family office success will vary, depending on the family and the office. What is the purpose for the family office? Most often, even when the family hasn’t defined it explicitly, the purpose is to promote the family’s legacy. How well does the family office support the family’s vision and hopes for the future, in addition to supporting their financial ability to pursue these dreams? This likely has more to do with maintaining family unity and cohesion, maximizing the family’s human capital (rather than financial capital) or seeing an entrepreneurial spirit and passion persist in future generations.

In the earlier analogy of starting your car, the car is a means to support your journey, whether that is to the grocery store or on a vacation. A family office is part of the means for a family to achieve its vision or legacy — the vision or legacy is more important than the office.

Once you identify how you will define success, you need a

reporting dashboard to track it.

One family told us their family office’s purpose was to “remove the burdens of wealth from the talent [next-generation family members], so they can focus their time and attention on the business.” For this family, success can be measured by how much work has been removed from the family members. Another family told us that the founder has very strong values, and they will measure success by whether or not the values remain after the founder passes away. This is harder to measure but an admirable objective.

It is not an easy exercise, and it requires being intentional in thinking through your purpose and identifying how you will define success.

Measuring success

Once you identify how you will define success, you need a reporting dashboard to track it. This should be a one-page report, measuring not just the primary measures of success, but also the derailers. A good report will track what will make the office a success, as well as factors that could prod the family to say it is a failure. The measures should be both short-term (e.g., How we are doing this year?) as well as long- term (e.g., How we are doing over five years?).

The easy metrics are typically the derailers: total expense, investment returns, tax liability and fraud. How do you report on fraud? If you were a victim of fraud, you obviously report that. If you are not aware of being a fraud victim, perhaps you report results from accounting controls or from your regular ethical phishing tests (because you are doing those, right?).

How do you measure family members’ entrepreneurial spirit and passion? One family decided that a partial answer was to track the percentage of family members whose earned income is at least as much as the distributions they receive. This is not a clean proxy, but it’s moving in the right direction. Another family tracks level of academic degrees earned and ongoing educational efforts.

One might wonder how the family office can impact or influence these results. Once you understand the vision and desired legacy for the family, the office leadership can get creative in helping them move toward that vision. If education is a big part of that, then the family office can help each family member find ways to further their education or participate in relevant conferences or seminars. If entrepreneurship is important, the office might find relevant speakers for the family retreat as well as provide one-on-one coaching.

Supporting a multigenerational family legacy is never easy, but don’t let the challenge deter you from putting in the effort. Start with intentionality, then add creativity from your leadership team and a lot of hard work — and prepare to celebrate the success of your family office.

Originally published in Family Business Magazine , January / February 2020

Should I Form a Family Office?

Wed, 31 Dec 2025 21:46:39 GMT

When to Start a Family Office

Your family business has grown and prospered beyond your dreams, your wealth is growing, and friends are telling you it is time to start a family office. You are confused, recognizing that you aren’t the Rockefeller or Gates family, and wonder if a family office is really right for your needs.

How do you know whether you should start such an office?

Let’s detour briefly to define what a family office is. In simple terms, a family office is a private organization created to oversee and manage the financial needs of a specific family. They may be as small as one or two staff, supported by a network of outsourced advisors, or they may include 20 or more employees. The ideal family office is a mix of insourced and outsourced services, leveraging a network of expert advisors.

There are a series of factors that weigh into the decision. We constantly meet families who are wrestling with this question, and there rarely are easy or clear-cut answers. However, if factors suggesting a family office outweigh the ones suggesting not, then the family may decide to move forward.

Let’s discuss seven key factors to consider when making this decision:

High wealth complexity. Is the burden of administering your wealth and holdings outweighing the benefits of that wealth? Families with multiple houses with maintenance, staffing, and potential renovations often find they want additional support. Other families have assets spread across various trusts and entities, with a long list of asset managers and custodians. Often, such families struggle with knowing their total worth, identifying all of their holdings, and tracking their spending. 
Multi-generations. There certainly are first generation wealth-owners without children who can justify a family office, but most often, family offices benefit families who are planning across three or more generations.
Privacy. A family office can be a tool for protecting the family’s privacy about its wealth and activities.
Legacy. What is the family’s desired legacy across the next 50 to 100 years? Is there a desire to build and maintain family unity across generations, held together by common values, history and perhaps a business or other holdings? Other families want to split the wealth at each generation, giving each person freedom and flexibility to go their own way.
Control. Families often form a family office to give themselves greater control over investments, holdings and staff compared to using outsourced investment firms.
Cost. Hiring staff, with facilities and equipment, can be expensive. Frequently, one can outsource services or use a multi-family office for a lower cost. When the importance of the other factors listed here out-weigh concerns about cost, then a family office is feasible.
Wealth level. The typical question is, “at what level of wealth should I start a family office?” Are we discussing overall wealth, including the business, or just marketable wealth? The right answer, of starting a family office or not, depends on the above factors just as much as wealth. However, since we are pressed for an answer, here is a rough guideline:

Advice and assistance from external parties can be beneficial for families who are unsure of whether to establish a family office. Such observers may be able to pinpoint the family’s challenges, guiding them to the best decision for their family.

Why Should I Allow an Outsider to Review my Family Office?

Sun, 20 Jun 2021 02:23:38 GMT

Why should I allow an outsider to review my family office?

This is a key question we frequently encounter. One of the primary purposes of your family office is to maintain the

privacy of the family. If you allow someone to spend time in your office, understanding the services, processes and procedures, then you are giving up elements of that privacy. Why would you do that?

What could the family office gain?

A better question might be, “what do you have to gain?” Could there be risks or gaps that you haven’t thought about? Are there holes in your control processes? Could you better serve the family by bringing some services in-house, or perhaps by outsourcing something you currently do in-house? What additional services might you consider providing for the family? Are there ways to deliver your services more efficiently or effectively, perhaps allowing your team to expand their offering?

Do your reports to the family provide them the information they want and need? Are you effectively using technology? And, not to step too hard on your toes, but when you changed your bill pay and approval processes during the pandemic, did you look at your controls to ensure they are still relevant and effective? If fraud were to occur, where is it most likely to happen?

What is a family office diagnostic?

We have worked with a wide variety of family offices over nearly 20 years, and are often challenged to come up with creative ways to add controls (e.g., how do you segregate accounting duties in a one-person office?) or enhance an offering. A family office diagnostic shows how your office compares to other family offices, gives you a quantitative grade, and most importantly, provides a series of recommendations for how to improve the office – risk management, effectiveness and efficiency.

Such a diagnostic can be a great prelude to creating strategic plans , as you prepare to service the family’s next generation or consider technology upgrades. As for the privacy issue that we opened with, we zealously guard the family’s privacy; our continued business depends on our discretion. Please reach out and let’s discuss a family office diagnostic.

Family Business Dividend Policy Creation

Fri, 09 Apr 2021 14:51:40 GMT

Over the years, I've really enjoyed working with the various people at Family Business Magazine, and am honored to have another article published in the current edition.

I've had many questions over the last few years about how family businesses should make distributions to owners, and I finally wrote my thoughts on the topic.

Being thoughtful on this topic, involving the various family owners in documenting philosophy and approach, can go a long way toward building family harmony. I hope you enjoy this article.

Please reach out about creating a vision and strategic plan to support your legacy.

Family Business Charitable Contributions

Tue, 23 Feb 2021 15:50:46 GMT

One of our family business clients recently asked for a benchmark or assistance in setting an amount for charitable giving from the business. What a great question!

The challenge is that family businesses have such different goals, values and approaches; it is difficult to compare them to each other.

Most family businesses are at least doing nominal charitable giving, such as sponsoring youth sports and local schools or perhaps in-kind donations of whatever product or service they provide. Many family businesses do this without tracking them or even much thought.

When it comes to larger donations, businesses have to think about why they are making them. Some businesses make donations as public relations, perhaps instead of advertising and marketing. These businesses may have larger donation budgets than others, as it combines marketing with charitable desires.

Some businesses make very few donations, explaining that they distribute money to owners and encourage them to donate personally. A few family businesses we know have used the Biblical-tithe as a rule, giving a tenth of their net income, either donating in-year or perhaps setting up a foundation or donor-advised fund. Some businesses set a fixed amount annually, based perhaps on what they did in the past or a number that “feels” right. Other businesses choose to make donations in particularly good years, or perhaps when they sell a line of business or a particular property.

One conversation we’ve held many times is about how important it is to ensure that donations from the business match the family’s shared values while ensuring they support (or at least do not detract from) the business’ goals. In other words, if a donation could lead to bad social media or alienate groups of customers, or if perhaps the recipient organization only matches the values of a subset of owners, then the business should not make the donation. Focus on where the family and its values are in alignment, and ignore the areas where they disagree.

None of this musing answers our client’s question about how much they should budget for charity each year. We would love to hear from you on benchmarking charitable giving – how has your family business set amounts for such donations?

Please reach out about creating a vision and strategic plan to support your legacy.

Vision Provides Boundaries for What Not to Do

Fri, 18 Dec 2020 15:49:26 GMT

In working with families, family businesses and family offices on their vision and strategic plans , we’ve long discussed how the vision and values should identify where to focus your efforts and attention.

Many times, we’ve looked at business opportunities and evaluated whether they aligned with the family’s values, as well as their vision. We’ve targeted investments, new businesses, philanthropic initiatives, succession plans, training programs, and much more based on their desired future-legacy. This has been a clear benefit of knowing who you are, where you want to go, and what is important to you. You can choose to change your vision, but don’t operate outside of it.

As I created the vision and values for Big Canyon Advisors, I was reminded of another benefit to having a clear vision and purpose: providing boundaries about what not to do. I am focused on inspiring families to achieve their legacy for the next 100 years; spending time on activities that don’t support that vision is a distraction, limiting my success.

Recently, several people have approached us about referral opportunities with good, solid companies. However, while such arrangements could be profitable for the business, since they are not within the vision (and are potential conflicts of interest), we have declined these opportunities. Our vision statement has helped us understand not just where we are going, but also where we should not go in order to stay on track.

Having a clear vision and strategy for the family and business keeps us moving toward our goals, while also providing boundaries to help us say “no” to things that could distract or waylay us on the path toward success. This is just as true of the families, businesses and family offices with which we are working.

Please reach out about creating a vision and strategic plan to support your legacy.

Welcome

Thu, 29 Oct 2020 14:48:21 GMT

Welcome to Big Canyon Advisors!

After more than 30 years of working for large companies, and nearly 20 years focused on family businesses and family offices, I took the leap to start my own consulting firm. I have been inspired by the entrepreneurial spirit of many of the clients I’ve advised over the years.

We will use this blog site to share insights into some of the common challenges we find across our clients, and hope to hear back from you, with your own insights and experiences.

Our intent is to have a fresh post at least monthly, so please check back.

Thank you for visiting.

Charlie

big-canyon-advisors

Why we Need Family Meetings

Why hold family meetings

Celebration reinforces a powerful message: we are not just related; we are in this together.

How to conduct meaningful family meetings

A family meeting should become a tethering point for the family: something consistent that lets everyone know, we are doing this on purpose.

Summary

A Rose by Another Name?

How to Manage the Challenges of an Embedded Family Office

The pitfalls

Handling family members' separate needs may distract company staff from their primary roles.

An embedded office can fall into a 'no man's land,' where everyone assumes somebody else is providing proper oversight and control.

Mitigating the challenges

Why some businesses choose to separate the family office

How to Determine Whether Your Family Office is Successful

Derailers of success

If you don't know how to define success, then how can you properly do strategic planning or decide where to focus new resources?

What is success?

Once you identify how you will define success, you need a

reporting dashboard to track it.

Measuring success

Should I Form a Family Office?

When to Start a Family Office

How do you know whether you should start such an office?

Let’s discuss seven key factors to consider when making this decision:

Why Should I Allow an Outsider to Review my Family Office?

Why should I allow an outsider to review my family office?

What could the family office gain?

What is a family office diagnostic?

Family Business Dividend Policy Creation

Family Business Charitable Contributions

Vision Provides Boundaries for What Not to Do

Welcome

Welcome to Big Canyon Advisors!

Celebration reinforces a powerful message:
we are not just related; we are in this together.

A family meeting should become
a tethering point for the family: something consistent
that lets everyone know, we are doing this on purpose.

Handling family members' separate needs
may distract company staff from
their primary roles.

An embedded office can fall into a 'no man's land,'
where everyone assumes somebody else is
providing proper oversight and control.

If you don't know how to define success,
then how can you properly do strategic planning
or decide where to focus new resources?