Speeches and Seminars
Four Current Speaking Topics
“Joined at the Wallet”: Sharing Family Wealth Elegantly
Inevitably, shared wealth will have a profound effect on family relationships. “Joined at the wallet”, wealthy families encounter rare opportunities and dark hazards.
Drawing from his new book, “Healthy Wealth in Families”, Gerald Le Van offers guideposts and warning signs to families searching for happiness and purpose in the midst of their prosperity.
Le Van focuses on the family’s relational estate — that complex mix of genes, history, heritage and webs of relationships that connect them across generations. Its relational estate is a wealthy family’s most valuable non-financial asset…yet priceless.
Traditional advice to wealthy families focuses and wealth management, wealth transfer and tax avoidance. Le Van’s presentation introduces relational estate planning:
- how to coordinate family wealth with family dynamics,
- how a family council can provide healthy governance and guidance,
- how to leverage and grow the family’s own self-mediating skills to minimize disputes and differences.
Feuds and Flashpoints: Avoiding Family Conflict about Inheritance
Ellen, a wealthy widow worries that her adult children will squabble over their inheritance.
In a late life act of tough love, Ellen coaxes her children to organize a family council. After a shaky start, their family council becomes a forum for healthy discussion of family wealth, family concerns and family heritage.
Wealthy family members and their advisors will readily identify with Ellen’s dilemma and the seeds of dispute among her children. Their story provides hope and practical how-to guidance to families who want to avoid conflict over family wealth.
Program materials include a detailed “Flashpoint Detector Questionnaire” that helps surface potential estate disputes during the estate planning process.
A typical audience reaction:
“Best presentation about the human side of estate planning I have ever heard.”
Family Wealth and Family Happiness: Accentuating the Positive
The U.S. Declaration of Independence enshrines “the pursuit of happiness” as an inalienable right.
But what is happiness? Who is happy? And how can wealthy families pursue happiness?
In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson declared that the “pursuit of happiness” is an inalienable right. A new “positive psychology” is exploring human happiness.
In an imaginary conversation between Jefferson and the founder of modern positive psychology, Gerald Le Van illustrates remarkable parallels in their views of human happiness.
From long experience, Le Van believes that happiness is “high maintenance” in wealthy families. He adds sensitive and practical guidelines for growing and maintaining happiness in wealthy families.
Program materials include Internet resources on positive psychology.
Typical audience reaction:
“Le Van understands how wealth and happiness not only co-exist but fortify each other.”
39 Critical Questions for Business Families
Gerald Le Van has introduced his “39 Critical Questions” to thousands of business family members and seminar participants. He has written two books about a hypothetical business family, the JacMars, and their generational struggles with the 39 Critical Questions.
- In his “The Survival Guide for Business Families” the founding JacMars face business succession for the first time.
- In “Families Money and Trouble”, the JacMar’s company has grown tenfold since the death of the founder twenty-three years before, and does business on six continents. The second and third generations discover that the 39 Critical Questions are still profoundly relevant to their now global family-owned business.
Le Van demonstrates how to use the 39 Critical Questions as an information gathering tool to surface agendas for important family discussions about the future of the family-owned business. Included in the program materials is a “Flashpoint Detector Questionnaire” that, during the estate planning process, can help surface issues of future potential litigation.
Typical audience reaction:
“Somewhere among the 39 Critical Questions lie the most important issues for most family-owned businesses.”
Gerald Le Van approaches each presentation not merely as a speaker, but as an insightful provider of valuable information. He carefully tailors presentations to the particular needs of each audience. The organizations below have sponsored these presentations:
Accounting
AICPA, Associated Accounting Firms International, Ernst & Young, International Group of Accounting Firms, Mid-America Tax Conference, TAG International - Association of Independent Accounting Firms, State CPA Societies: Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Texas
Bar Associations
American Bar Association, Arkansas Bar Association, Boone Bar Association, Colorado Bar Association, Connecticut Bar Association, Delaware Bar Association, Georgia Bar Association, Kentucky Bar Association, Louisiana Bar Association, Louisville Bar Association, Nebraska Bar Association, North Carolina Bar Association, South Carolina Bar Association, Texas Bar Association
Charitable Groups
City of Hope, Cleveland Community Foundation, Texas Community Foundation
Continuing Education
American Law Institute-American Bar Association, American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, Commerce Clearing House, Duke University, Family Firm Institute, Illinois Institute of CLE, Maryland Institute of CLE, New York University Estate Planning Institute, North Carolina Bar Association, Southwest Legal Foundation, University of Miami Heckerling Institute, University of Notre Dame
Estate Planning Councils
Atlanta, Austin, Birmingham, Chattanooga, Chicago, Charlotte, Cincinnati, Dallas, Detroit, Greensboro, Greenville, Houston, Jacksonville, Memphis, Mississippi, Mobile, Nashville, New Orleans, Oklahoma City, Orange County, Palm Beach, Philadelphia, Richmond, Roanoke, Rocky Mountain, St. Louis, San Antonio, Seattle, Shreveport, Western Michigan
Family Business Forums
Baylor University, Centenary College of Louisiana, Emory University, Furman University, University of North Carolina-Charlotte, University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Financial Services
American College of Financial Planning, American Society of CLU & ChFC, Association for Advanced Life Underwriters, Bank of America, Chemical Bank of New York, Commerce Bank of St. Louis, Dempsey Financial, Detroit Life Underwriting Association, First Commerce Corporation, Harris Bank & Trust-Chicago, International Association for Financial Planning, Key Trust Company of Ohio, Lincoln Financial Distributors, M Financial Group, Million Dollar Round Table, New York Life Insurance Company, Northwestern Mutual Life Company, Pacific Life Insurance Company, Phoenix Home Life Insurance, Smith Barney Private Wealth Management, Sovereign Wealth Management, Standard Insurance Company, Wachovia Bank
International Sponsors
Canadian Association of Family Enterprise, Council of Arab Business Women, Family Business Network, International Academy of Estate and Trust Law, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)-Egypt
Owner Groups
Coca-Cola Bottlers’ Association, Inland Press Newspaper Association, New England Newspaper Association, Inc., Pepsi-Cola Bottlers’ Association, World Presidents’ Organization, Young Presidents’ Organization