Wealth and Families – Book

Wealth and Families traces its roots to a family member’s request that Howard Stevenson, Harvard Business School professor emeritus, share what he has learned from experience about investing, wealth, and life.

Wealth. It’s a nice problem to have, but the financial uncertainty inherent in today’s world means that no one can afford not to think about wealth – how you get it, manage it, and use it. Wealth and families? Even more complicated!

Stevenson’s newly published book, Wealth and Families: Lessons from My Life Journey, offers thoughtful reflections, guiding principles, practical advice, and numerous stories for four broad audiences:

• Students, recent graduates and other people just beginning their wealth journey
• Executives, business owners, and inheritors who already have achieved some wealth and are trying to manage it
• Wealthy parents in need of practical advice and a framework for talking to the next generation about wealth
• Wealth professionals including financial advisors, investment managers, financial education service providers, and the like

Wealth and Families discusses the nature and dynamics of wealth and offers principles for building and managing it. It also shares lessons learned about investing, explains how to find and use professional help, and tackles the almost undiscussible topic of family wealth.

Stevenson offers a rebuttal to family wealth models as well as a philosophy of family wealth and suggestions on how to raise children in the context of wealth. Many wealthy parents worry about giving the kids too much; Stevenson would say that’s the wrong question.

Praise for Wealth and Families

“Howard Stevenson is a wise man. This personal narrative marries decades of real life experience with an academic’s unbiased search for the truth. Enjoy his pithy, pointed writing style and you will be rewarded with new insights on wealth and families and a fun read.” – Stuart Lucas, Chairman of Wealth Strategist Partners, a fourth-generation heir of the founder of the Carnation Company, and author of Wealth: Grow It and Protect It

“Stevenson has managed to do something no one has managed to do before: produce a life manual for families with even a moderate level of wealth. Wealth and Families illustrates that building and managing a family network is a multi-dimensional journey – a journey that never ends – with each decision defining future options in areas from finances to family relations. It is a must read for any family with assets.” – Daniel Muzyka, President and CEO of the Conference Board of Canada, RBC Financial Group Professor of Entrepreneurship, University of British Columbia

“This unique and exceptional memoir is a tutorial on family capital – both financial and human. Rich with juicy, instructive stories, it will hold the interest of any family member. Elder generations will nod in recognition at some of the truths that Howard shares, millennials will find a road map for navigating the choices of becoming… and I intend to share whole portions of the book with every teenager I know.”- Joline Godfrey, author of Raising Financially Fit Kids and founder of Independent Means, a financial education services provider

Author:

Howard Stevenson’s forty-year career as a professor at the Harvard Business School included the founding of the school’s Entrepreneurial Management Program. A chair was named in his honor at his retirement. His entrepreneurial ventures included founding and serving as the first president of the Baupost Group, Inc., a wealth management firm that now invests $29 billion for its clients. He remains involved in the investment world today, working with his son to manage investments for his family and others. Deeply committed to philanthropy as a donor and a nonprofit broad member and trustee, he wrote Getting to Giving: Fundraising the Entrepreneurial Way to share his philanthropic experiences. His most cherished role is as the member of a family he describes as “wealthy enough to have real choices and complex enough to face real challenges.”