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Get ongoing support for your family office

We will sit in the room each year and keep the framework working as the family changes.

A governance framework is easy to sign and hard to keep. The charter gets agreed, the first meeting goes well, and then the family returns to making decisions the way it always did. What keeps a framework alive is someone independent in the room. That means preparing the agenda, recording what was decided, and asking the question nobody in the family wants to ask. We provide that on an ongoing basis rather than only at setup.

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Meetings that actually happen

Someone outside the family is responsible for convening, preparing and running each one.

Decisions with a recorded reason

The family holds an account of why something was decided rather than competing recollections of it.

The awkward question asked

A question that lands as a challenge from a relative lands as process from someone independent.

What does ongoing family governance support involve?

Ongoing support is the work of keeping a governance framework operating after it has been established. In practice it means running the family’s decision-making forum. That covers setting agendas, circulating papers in advance, chairing or attending meetings, and recording the decisions made. It also means reviewing the framework as circumstances change. Members marry, separate, join the business or leave it, and a charter that is never revisited stops describing the family it was written for.

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Why would we pay someone to attend our own family meetings?

Because the work that keeps a framework alive is the work nobody in the family wants to own. Convening, preparing, chairing and recording are unglamorous, and a family member doing them is never quite neutral. The independence is most of the value.

How often should the family meet?

It depends on what is being decided. Most family groups settle on two to four times a year, with an annual session that takes a longer view. Meeting too rarely makes each one too full. Meeting too often makes them a chore and attendance drops.

What if family members stop attending?

That is the signal to address rather than the problem itself. Usually it means the forum has stopped being where decisions are made, or that a member feels the outcome is already settled. Both are fixable, and both get worse if the pattern is allowed to set.

Does the charter need reviewing if nothing has changed?

Something has usually changed even when it does not feel like it. Members marry, separate, have children, join the business or step back. A scheduled review is cheap and catches the drift between what the charter describes and how the family now works.

Keep the framework working between meetings

Tell us what your framework looks like and how often the family meets. We will tell you what ongoing support would add and what it would cost.

A framework nobody maintains quietly becomes a document nobody follows

You have a charter and a forum, and both were the right thing to do. What is harder is keeping them running. Meetings drift and papers go out late or not at all. Decisions get made between meetings by the people who always made them, and the record of why is somebody’s memory. None of that is a crisis. It is how a framework stops being real.

We will prepare the agenda and circulate papers before each family meeting.
We will chair or attend the meeting and keep it to the matters it was called for.
We will record the decisions and the reasoning behind them.
We will follow up what was agreed between meetings.
We will review the governance framework on an agreed cycle as the family changes.

The framework exists and the family has drifted back to old habits

The charter was agreed a year or two ago, and everyone meant it. Since then the meetings have become less frequent, the agenda is whatever is urgent, and the minutes are thin or missing. One or two members have stopped attending and are hearing about decisions afterwards. Nobody has done anything wrong. The framework is simply not being run by anyone whose job it is.

What's included in your ongoing governance support

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Agenda preparation and circulation of papers in advance.
Chairing or attendance at each family meeting.
Minutes recording decisions and the reasoning behind them.
Follow-up of agreed actions between meetings.
An independent voice to raise the difficult questions.
Scheduled review of the charter and the forum's terms of reference.

How a framework stops working

A governance framework does not fail at a meeting. It fails between them.

Decisions taken outside the forum are the usual mechanism. They are almost always reasonable and almost always urgent, and each one teaches the family that the forum is optional. Within a year or two the meetings are a briefing on decisions already made, which is exactly the position the framework was built to replace.

The records matter as much. Take a distribution made one way rather than another, or an opportunity given to one member and not another. A family that cannot show why has no answer beyond recollection when somebody asks. That question usually comes years later, from a member who was not in the room. By then the people who were may not agree about what happened.

From a framework on paper to one the family actually uses

We take on the running of it. That means an agenda prepared in advance and papers circulated so members arrive informed. The meeting starts and finishes on the matters it was called for.

We record decisions properly, including the reasoning, so the family has an account rather than a recollection. We follow up what was agreed between meetings. We raise the questions that are easier for someone outside the family to raise, which is often the whole value of having us there. We review the framework itself on a set cycle. Families change, and a charter written five years ago may not describe the family making decisions now.

How ongoing support works

Prepare, chair, record, and review on a cycle.

Prepare the meeting

We set the agenda and circulate the papers so every member arrives equally informed.

Chair and record

We keep the meeting to its purpose and record the decisions along with the reasoning.

Follow up and review

We track what was agreed between meetings and review the framework on a set cycle.

Someone independent in the room, every time the family meets

The hardest part of family governance is not designing it. It is asking a relative, in front of other relatives, why a decision was made the way it was.

We have two Family Business Association accredited advisors, and we are the FBA State Partner in South Australia. Two of our lawyers are full members of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners. We attend and chair family meetings, prepare and record them, and review governance frameworks as the family changes. Being outside the family is the point. It is what lets the question get asked without it landing as a challenge.

Our great lawyer guarantee

Six principles we hold to, whatever you bring us and however long it takes.

Take the time

We listen carefully to understand what you want to achieve, then step you through the advice and the documents.

Share our knowledge

We pass on as much as we can, so you can make your own informed decisions.

Stick to our knitting

We only do what we are good at, so you never pay for our learning.

Work as one team

Someone is always available to answer your question or point you the right way.

Fair pricing

A fixed or capped quote for advice and documents, so you do not carry the price risk.

It is your show

We are in it for a front row seat to witness your success, not for our egos.

Get support that keeps the framework running

Tell us what your framework looks like and when the family next meets. We will tell you what ongoing support would involve and where it would make the most difference.

Speak to a lawyer 1300 654 590