Generational Change is Possible

Families of multi-generational wealth and family businesses operate within systems that shape behavior, roles, and decision-making across generations, often without anyone mapping these unseen relational forces. According to J.P. Morgan Private Bank's 2026 Global Family Office Report, a survey of 333 single family offices across 30 countries with an average net worth of $1.6 billion, 86% of family offices lack a clear succession plan for key decision makers, and 41% of business-owning families rank internal family conflict as a top-three continuity risk, nearly double the rate of non-business-owning peers. With $124 trillion in generational wealth expected to transfer by 2048, it's the relational infrastructure of the family and not the legal or financial architecture, that most commonly causes succession to break down. In this episode, the StoryOne team continues their conversation with Ken Howard to explore how those dynamics form, how they can become succession risks, and what it takes to change them before they do. Ken shares practical insights into identifying structural risks within relationships navigating resistance to change in business-owning families, and introducing healthier patterns that hold. Sources: J.P. Morgan Private Bank, 2026 Global Family Office Report; The Wall Street Journal (Ensign, March 24, 2026). If you'd like to connect with Ken, you can reach him directly at: [email protected]