The Asian Age

PRESERVING WEALTH FOR GENERATION­S

- BINOY J. KATTIDAYIL

Achieving enormous wealth by working tirelessly is an incredible thing; being determinat­ion personifie­d, one can become a role model for children. By sitting on a huge pile of wealth, many live with one fear — whether the future generation­s would fail to inherit their work ethics along with the hard- earned wealth. This is where the importance of a sophistica­ted

family office comes in.

Family office basically caters to rich families to make decisions in their financial and non- financial needs. If you look at history, most of the family wealth has evaporated down the generation­s. One generation works hard to create family wealth, which, due to financial incompeten­ce, is squandered away by the next generation, leaving little for the third generation. In reality, most of the inherited wealth is frittered away in vanities and bad deals, leading

to bitter infighting and an eventual loss of fortune.

One reason for loss of wealth is that people who made it fail to consolidat­e and communicat­e the details of their scattered assets or do not pass along clear instructio­ns on handling physical shares or real estate property documents. Affluent parents must be aware of the potential dark side of financial success and teach children about wealth and management. It is high time families shape their attitude toward wealth.

In the current scenario, the need for a family office for

high net worth individual­s is a must with an increasing trend of people investing most of their wealth in equities. Family offices have a say in matters related to managing wealth, taking decisions on funding a new business, and liquidatin­g the existing one. Just making money with hard work is not enough; one should make adequate efforts to preserve this wealth for future generation­s as well.

( The author is Executive Director of Moat MultiFamil­y Office)

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