Allowances, trusts, constitutions
Wealth rarely survives three generations by accident. It survives because someone taught the children what money is for.
The short version
This section is not investment advice; we are a magazine, not a bank. It is about the conversations, habits and documents that decide whether a fortune becomes a burden or a foundation: allowances, the first savings account, the trust the children will one day understand, and the family constitution that keeps everyone at the same table.
In this section
Money & Legacy · 7 min read
A child who manages a small amount of money badly at eight will manage a large amount badly at twenty-eight. The three jars are the simplest financial education there is, and wealthy families need it more than anyone.
Money & Legacy · 9 min read
Children who first hear the family's number from a lawyer at eighteen struggle. Children who grew into it through a hundred small conversations do not. The question is not whether to tell them but how to make it ordinary.
Money & Legacy · 9 min read
Wealth rarely survives three generations by accident. Families who beat the odds have a written agreement on values, decisions, roles and money that has no legal force and enormous practical force. Here is what goes in it.
A useful rule is one euro per week per year of age from six, doubled from twelve when clothes and phone come out of it, and a monthly budget from sixteen. Wealthy families often give less than average and pay for more directly; what matters is that the child manages something.
Gradually, from about ten, and fully before they can sign anything. Children who first hear the number from a lawyer at 18 or 21 struggle more than children who grew into it through conversations, visits to the family business and a small portfolio of their own.
A written agreement on how the family makes decisions: who sits on the family council, how the business or the foundation is governed, how members join and leave, what is expected of the next generation. It has no legal force but enormous practical force.
