Affluenza in some worlds is running rampant. What is affluenza? It is sadly a malady where as one person described in the baseball context, “someone woke up on third base and concluded that they were a great hitter”. Perhaps, this is a symptom of the well documented statistic of the increasing concentration of wealth in fewer people so that the next generation, from a pejorative perspective may not necessarily have to work hard to get ahead, because they would at some point, inherit the family’s fortune. From another perspective, the opportunities for the youth of today, absent mobility, are not as prevalent as they were, say in the last generation for the Baby Boomers.

What can you do as a leader of your family?
– Educate,
– Communicate, and
– Listen.

Part of the challenge is letting your family understand better what it took or takes to operate your family business. Understanding may help to avoid the sense of entitlement and then affluenza. Best practice is to begin establishing a family council, if you have not already done so. This council is a formal forum where, on a regular and recurring basis, information about the business, how it operates and sharing of financial information occurs. Family councils are well established in many businesses so there is much knowledge readily available about the form and content of the family council agendas. However, if unsure or have some concerns, then you may need some direction from an experienced advisor to ensure that you cover adequately and appropriately the relevant topics for the family.

Improving communication. The family council is but one of many tools to facilitate communication in the family to discuss wealth and the responsibility of having wealth. Constant and effective communication may avoid your family’s wealth from being taken for granted by any of the family members.

Lastly, the other side of communication is listening. Every generation is different in some way from the prior generation. Today, the millennials are the most wired, interactive (with smart phones everywhere), tech savvy generation. They communicate, gather, share in ways that are so different from a generation ago. Maybe affluenza is partially a result of our failure to better understand this generation and communicate with them. To be able to communicate with this generation, I think the education may have to be two-way

– We to educate them about the responsibilities of wealth
– They to educate us to help us to enable us to better understand how to connect with them,

all with the goal of avoiding affluenza.

Affluenza. Easy to catch but feasible to overcome with some work.

Learn, think, apply!