To prepare family members, and work within family systems, requires consultants who are skilled practitioners, who evolved from other professional fields and bring years of experience in the family consulting domain. Our consultants come from various backgrounds, including psychology, medicine, estate planning, social work, philanthropy, education, and communication. 

 

Every Williams Group family meeting has one Senior Lead Consultant and one Senior Family Consultant. Also available are specialty coaches who might join the advising team, depending on your family’s needs:

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• Role Development Consultant

• Passion Consultant

• Implementation Consultant 

 

Our consultants have been trained in developing high-performing teams in families and organizations with a specific emphasis on how language and mood affect the coordination of the planning effort. Let’s look at the roles of our consultants. 

 

Lead Consultant—Our Lead Consultants are our most experienced. Each has a minimum of 15 years of consulting experience in families and organizations. They are responsible for facilitating meaningful conversations, teaching the relevant communication tools at the right time, and ensuring the overall success of the family experience.

 

Senior Family Consultant--Our Senior Family Consultants are expert listeners. They are trained to listen for what is being said as well as what is not being said when to explore a particular topic further, and to ensure that the important topics are brought to the surface during family meetings. A primary role for the Senior Family Consultant is to establish an atmosphere of safety and trust. 

 

Role Development Consultant—This specialized consultant is charged with identifying the multiple needs and roles based on the family’s values and mission that were developed earlier in the process and their estate plans. Just a few examples of such roles include executor, trustee, family office executive, money manager, and foundation head. Each role requires observable and measurable standards for qualification and performance. This includes the roles of all professional advisors in case any of the family advisors can no longer fill the role, necessitating the hiring of a new advisor. The advisor will have helped develop the standards to replace him/herself. When this process includes the family, the advisors, and any person who helps identify the needs and roles, it deepens the knowledge, builds the entire team, and becomes a model for future generations to use.

 

Passion Consultant—Typically the passion consultant works with the next generation to identify their passions. At times they will work with the current family leader(s) to begin to explore the next stage of their career as they make room for the next generation to take roles they want and are prepared for. The passion consultant may use networking strategies, one-on-one consulting, interviews with other family members, and shadowing techniques, among other strategies, to support a family member in identifying his or her next role and life’s passion.

 

Implementation Consulting—An implementation consultant works closely with the family in implementing its Family Wealth Mission Statement. This consultant works with the family to identify educational needs, governance, investment strategies, and philanthropic goals. He or she also works closely with the family advisors and may come from the legal, accounting, or tax fields.

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