Make your family's wealth and gift planning multigenerational

Our work with families around the world has taught us something powerful: Wealth stewardship is changing.

Families have become more global, and more complex. We’re seeing that younger generations want to be included—and more than that, to be trusted—with planning and family philanthropy, and they want the opportunity to rise to positions of leadership. The old model of participation by proximity, title or tradition is rarely enough to sustain trust or long-term engagement.

Families are realizing they need clear, practical ways for the rising generation to make a real contribution. In our 2026 Global Family Office Report, 54% of surveyed family offices identified “legacy, succession and philanthropy” as an area where they have service needs or gaps. Give rising generation family members defined areas of responsibility they can own, with clear boundaries, so they can make meaningful decisions, learn from outcomes and be accountable.

Your family can achieve this by identifying shared goals and then translating them into an action plan. That involves making clear who has the right to make binding decisions, and who will bear certain responsibilities. “Guardrails” are agreed upon while learning is underway and family members learn from outcomes. Younger generations build their credibility outside the family, bringing it back to strengthen the family’s giving and impact decisions.

This can turn good intentions into execution, budgets, purpose and real responsibility.

Pair that with a fair, transparent process where everyone gets access to the same information and knows how decisions will be made and disagreements will be resolved, before tensions build.

A common source of tension is when and how family money will be shared—but if you have intentional conversations about these subjects, they become a vital step toward including younger generations.

Trust and credibility grow when family members collectively define what matters to them and connect it to real work, relevant experience and sound judgment. Here, we’ll show what this can look like today.

Purpose: A shared North Star to guide you

Aligning around a sense of purpose as a family and agreeing on a shared goal that will be your “North Star” is a strong first step in developing an approach to family philanthropy that is truly multigenerational and inclusive.

Identifying this purpose begins with some simple, big-picture questions: What does our family stand for? How might our values and ideals shape our approach to giving and contribution in our community? Further, what ideals will guide us as we grow and transition?

The families that pursue their aims most effectively have agreed on a shared goal, with space for individuals to find avenues that are meaningful to them personally. Once they’ve agreed on these goals, the family can devote capital, enterprise, philanthropy, reputation and stewardship to supporting them. Purpose matters because it stabilizes decision making under pressure and reduces conflict by clarifying what the family is aiming for. It also protects relationships by keeping the focus on outcomes, not individuals. Once families have identified and formalized that purpose, they can make it concrete by translating it into roles, decisions and boundaries.  

Finding your own meaning alongside shared goals

Each family member will have their own “why,” and it may be adjacent to, rather than identical to, the family’s. Meaning tends to emerge when three elements line up: Competence (what you are good at), care (what you are motivated to improve) and consequence (where your actions clearly matter).

In our experience, younger family members become disengaged when roles are vague and responsibility is ill-defined. They don’t find meaning when they’re given a title without a real outcome to own.

We help them collaborate with family leadership to get room to make choices within clear ground rules covering where the family needs to stay consistent. Most families want alignment on things like values, acceptable levels of risk and what could harm the family’s reputation.

Once these basics are established, there can be plenty of variety in the causes people support, what careers they pursue and how they live. Alignment allows for flexibility—a family where different interests and approaches are welcomed in pursuit of a shared purpose. When it works, we see the message become, “You do not have to do it our way. You do have to act responsibly within agreed boundaries.”

So, if you are a member of the rising generation, how can you clarify your individual purpose?

• Draft a one-page purpose note: what you care about, what subjects you are credible on and what you want to learn next. Pick one place to contribute now, then ask for a dedicated conversation to focus on a single outcome you can own this quarter.
• Treat purpose as a portfolio, not one perfect sentence. Name a few lanes where your family’s purpose shows up (like enterprise, philanthropy, impact investing, convening, talent development or civic leadership), so people recognize that all can contribute in different ways while staying aligned.
• Start with stewardship, such as: “I want to protect and strengthen what the family built.” Then ask for definitions, for example: “What do we mean by responsible risk?”  “What do we want our reputation to be?” “What does impact mean for our family?”
• Propose a 12-month “pilot” project in philanthropy, business or another realm. Start by choosing an area that matches your interests and bandwidth, then propose projects in one or two dedicated areas with clear boundaries that you can help run. Options include governance (a committee role, board exposure or specific decision rights); philanthropy (a grantmaking pool with clear criteria and reporting); enterprise (defined projects tied to the operating business); or learning (an education budget, mentoring plan, rotations, or shadowing with milestones). When it’s done, review what worked and share your findings with the wider family.

While generational tensions sometimes emerge, agreeing upfront on the boundaries—like risk limits, reputation guidelines, spending rules and how disagreement will be handled—can head them off proactively and keep conversations productive.

Often, there are tensions concerning speed. The rising generation may want to move fast while others may prefer to slow down and think it through. This is where a small pilot program with checkpoints can help. These let younger family members take action and learn quickly, while keeping risk contained. The check-ins give everyone a moment to review, adjust or stop.

Participation: Turning good intentions into “decision rights”

When rising generation family members want to demonstrate their capabilities, they can start by asking for a clear “who-decides-what” agreement. Document what you can decide independently, what the guardrails are, what updates you’re expected to share and how conflicts get handled. The goal is fewer politics and fewer surprises because the rules are written down.

When the rules are unclear, people can get anxious, keep secrets or make choices based on guesswork. Transparent guidelines and explaining why they were set up that way reduce conflict and help everyone plan.

For fairness, many families set clear “earn your voice” rules. These might include:

• Showing up prepared
• Participating consistently
• Building relevant knowledge and experience
• Demonstrating good judgment.

Such rules reduce accusations of favoritism and give everyone a clear path to more responsibility.

Families can use corporate-style governance mechanisms to convert their intentions into decision making and responsibility.

You can use a simple decision matrix to remove any ambiguity from investing, family payouts and charitable giving by spelling out who gives input, who needs to approve and how the final call is made. The goal should be to clarify rights, roles and responsibilities.

For example, what can/must each individual “Control, Influence, Accept?” What can I, as an individual, control? What can’t I control but might influence? What can’t I control or influence and just need to accept?

Similarly, the family should agree on the “Inform, Opinion, Decide” sequence. Who must be informed that an issue is on the table or that a decision needs to be made? Who has the right to make their opinion known, and in what forum will that happen? Who will be the ultimate decision maker(s) and on what basis will they make those decisions? If it’s enacted properly, this basis will link back to the family’s “North Star.”

Case study: Proposing a disciplined family bank concept

A Rising Generation family member revived the idea of a “family bank” that had been explored previously and brought it to first- and second-generation decision makers as a governance proposal rather than a funding request.

They proposed rules for how projects would be evaluated, how long decisions would take and how updates on funded projects would be shared. To reduce risk, they suggested releasing money in steps based on clear milestones, with agreed stop points if things were not working. They also committed to full transparency through quarterly updates, a written record of key decisions and a final review at the end, no matter the result.

Impact: Build credibility, then bring it back

Many younger family members choose to begin building their reputation outside the family—participating in hands-on giving, serving on nonprofit boards, working in a cause area or building expertise in other ways—and then bring back what they have learned. This helps them earn respect based on their achievements, not their last names.

Families can make this practical by giving a person or small group (such as a junior board) clear decision power for a set period, allowing them to run a defined philanthropic fund or a family learning budget.

They can also provide seed capital to start an enterprise, a family bank model that treats requests as disciplined capital allocation, or clear policies on the timing of distributions to family members. Clear timing and communication are often more important than specific dollar amounts.

Some examples of how Rising Generation individuals can build credibility externally

• Serve on nonprofit boards or community foundation committees to gain experience with governance.
• Run a small donor-advised fund, giving circle, or peer micro-fund to learn about grantmaking and a disciplined due diligence process, including a theory of change, risk assessment and reference calls, and a repeatable post-grant support model.
• Build expertise in a cause area such as housing, workforce, health, education or climate, and become the family’s subject matter expert, assessing strategies, tradeoffs and measurement approaches with credibility.
• Host salons, roundtables or practitioner networks to form powerful connections, then bring back vetted opportunities, co-funders and field intelligence rather than ideas alone.
• Write or speak about a topic, or collaborate on research to establish an independent voice, then use that authority to shape the family’s impact narrative and priorities.
• Join local task forces or commissions and build community leadership, bringing back a pragmatic view of what moves outcomes and a clearer understanding of the constraints, realistic timelines and local relationship networks.

We’ve seen that younger family members who’ve taken one or more of these steps return to the family’s efforts knowing that they are choosing to contribute because they have something valuable to add. That often leads to more thoughtful, practical involvement.

What you can do now

Rising generation family members who aspire to become leaders in their family can start by identifying topics and initiatives that interest them and projects they can take on. Then they can approach relatives and ask to pilot a program they can own.

Getting the project underway will include written agreements on boundaries and decision making that set down which decisions they can make independently, what the guardrails are, what updates will consist of and when they’ll be delivered, and how conflicts will be handled. This reduces conflict and surprises.

The ultimate projects might include becoming involved in governance, such as:

• Joining a committee
• Taking a role on a board with specific decision rights
• A philanthropic role, including grantmaking, with clear criteria and reporting
• Enterprise work that encompasses defined projects with measurable goals tied to specific business goals
• A focus on learning, including an education budget, a mentoring plan and rotations or shadowing, with milestones.

We suggest families normalize stepping back without disappearing: Anyone who needs to pause should say so, and ask that it be treated as a valid choice. Then, they can stay connected through periodic convenings, shared learning and sending transparent updates. Opting out of governance should not mean opting out of the family.

The families that grow strongest in the years ahead are those that treat the rising generation’s involvement as something to be built through clear communication, the giving of real responsibility, and trust, rather than something to be inherited by default. When expectations are explicit and decision making is shared and disciplined, all family members can contribute in ways that fit who they are while still protecting what the family stands for.

We can help

For more information about family governance and multigenerational wealth stewardship, contact your J.P. Morgan team.