A family compass is a written guide to a family's mission, values, and goals. It helps family members make decisions with a shared understanding of what they want wealth to support and how they want to work together across generations. It can guide family meetings and the family office, and should be revisited as the family changes.
What does a family compass include?
A family compass gives family members a shared reference point. It can include a mission statement, core values, and goals for the family or its office. The point is to make those ideas clear enough to inform decisions: what the family wants its wealth to accomplish, what principles should shape its choices, and what objectives matter over time.
Richard C. Wilson's family office material describes "Mission, Values & Goals" as core documents and policies for creating a family compass. It says that writing down the family office mission forces the family to settle on the objectives it wants to pursue as it builds wealth for generations. A compass is therefore more than a slogan: it connects the family's principles to the work and choices of the office.
How can a family use it?
Family members can use the compass to prepare for and guide family meetings, discuss priorities, and consider whether a proposed decision fits their shared goals. The document can also help clarify how the family wants its capital deployed. Family values should be discussed openly, since values inherited from the wealth creator may need to evolve for later generations.
A speaker at a Family Office Club event described how regular meetings can connect a family's value system to the way it deploys capital. Another passage in the event material describes a family whose patriarch had survived the Holocaust and arrived with nothing. His work ethic had helped create the family's wealth, but it was not a value he expected the next generation to carry forward. That example shows why a compass should make room for discussion: preserving a family's principles does not require treating every inherited practice as permanent.
How do you start?
Start with a family conversation. Ask what matters to the family, which principles should guide decisions, and what the family hopes its wealth will accomplish. Write down a small set of values and goals in plain language. Then discuss real examples, such as how those principles might shape a family meeting or a decision about capital.
Revisit the compass as family members and circumstances change. A useful document is one the family understands and can refer to, not one that sits untouched. Stories and repeated discussion can help younger generations understand what the words mean in practice.
From Family Office Club events
"The most successful process I have seen for transferring ideas from one generation to the next is using stories, having just a few core principles, and repeating these values often."
Sources
- Family Office Club event transcript
- Family Office Club event transcript
- Family Office Club event transcript
Educational only. Nothing on this site is investment, tax, legal, accounting or other professional advice, or a recommendation on any security, manager, structure or allocation. Speak with qualified professionals before acting.