Regular family meetings can be an effective conduit through which generational values can be shared, said Sutton.
Also, families who successfully transfer wealth are able to share their family stories across generations. Children and grandchildren learn about the living conditions of their ancestors before the family’s wealth was built, and also learn the work and decision-making that generated the family’s money.
Sutton told part of his family story. At age 12, his grandfather ran away from home and enrolled in a boarding school in northern Georgia for impoverished children. After graduating, he hitchhiked to Florida, where he met Sutton’s grandmother, who was a school teacher. Sutton’s grandfather was eventually appointed to a judgeship, but died before he could complete his term, so the governor of Florida offered the seat to his grandmother.
“She was not a lawyer. She was a teacher with three kids to support, but she thought, ‘I could do that,’” said Sutton. After serving out her term, Sutton’s grandmother sought out higher office as a judge, which would require running for election. At that time there were no elected women judges in Florida.
Sutton’s grandmother won soundly and continued to serve as a judge well into her 60s.
“I was speaking in Florida and an elderly woman took me aside and asked ‘Are you Ruth Sutton’s grandson? I have to talk to you,’” he said. The woman told him, “’first, your grandmother was the first woman that I voted for. Second, she was the first woman that I could vote for.’"
"That really got me thinking about my family’s story ... about my daughter and the risks she will have to take to succeed. When I think about the values I subscribe to, I think about my grandfather running away, hitchhiking down the road, and all the hard work he had to put in. Then my grandmother seeing things and asking ‘why do they have to be the way they are?’
“All of you have these stories in your families. You have to draw them out.”
Finally, families who successfully transfer wealth actively engage with each other in philanthropy.
Philanthropy is effective because it helps families communicate shared values across generations, said Sutton. “If you can weave philanthropy into a lot of what you’re doing already, it becomes truly powerful to rising generations.”
Sutton noted that philanthropic planning makes sense for financial advisors, as many clients, especially high-net-worth families, are already charitably inclined, with 91 percent of families with $1 million or more in net worth giving to charity. In 2017 alone, over $410 billion was given to charity.