Wealth of Wisdom

CHAPTER 15Creating Impactful Learning Programs for Families

Greg Burrows and Ruth Steverlynck

When family relationships, love, and hopes overlay with money, control, and power, any future planning or contemplated transitions can easily get stuck in a quagmire of fear, lack of trust, and lack of transparency. These conditions can create anxious, dependent systems. But families can mitigate these forces by building openness, transparency, and capability through the work of learning together.

Building a family culture of learning and growing together does not just happen. It takes intention and planning and resources and consistency.

This chapter focuses on building an Impactful Learning Program (ILP). We will share some time-tested approaches and ideas that you can draw from to help evolve a family culture of learning and in so doing support the desired future for the family and for the financial engine of the family.

There is an old story from the Bible: two families build homes. One family chooses “quick and easy” and builds their house on sand. The storm comes and the house collapses.

The other family chooses to invest in a solid foundation; they take the time to dig deep and build their home on rock. The storm comes and the house stands still.

Build Your Foundation

Let's start with why Impactful Learning Programs (ILPs) are important for families. Motivations will differ but the overarching “why” is simple:

To minimize the gap between a possible negative future ...