Two fears run every family like yours.
The founding generation is afraid the money will ruin you. You’re afraid of letting them down. Nobody says either one out loud, so the conversation about what the wealth is for never happens. You inherit the plan without ever being told what it was for.
You’ll have the authority. That’s not the same as being ready.
The last name, the resources, the seat at the table. What you won’t have yet is legitimacy, because you haven’t produced results of your own. Closing that gap is the work. Not proving you deserve the name. Building something the name didn’t build for you.
What readiness is
Access
Do you know who the advisors are, where the documents live, and how the wealth is actually reached? If your father were gone tomorrow, could you find it?
Understanding
Do you know the family’s values and the entities it runs on well enough to operate inside them?
Intent
Do you know where you fit, and have you said so? You can say no to the family business now, or in thirty years when it fails because you never wanted it.
Capability
Do you have the skills to run what you’ll be handed? Authority is inherited. Capability isn’t.
We measure the gap, not you.
Nobody wants to be told they aren’t ready. So we don’t grade you. We sit with you and with your parents separately, ask the same questions, and put the answers side by side. Where they disagree is where the work is. It stops being your problem or theirs and becomes something the family solves together.
How the work runs
The Family Scorecard
The two-sided interview above. Where the gap sits, in each of the four domains.
An engagement
One on one, on the gap the scorecard found. Measured at the start and at the end.
A peer circle seat
Eight rising gen who share your reality. Monthly, facilitated by Chris, twelve months with a ninety-day out. The room where you say what’s actually true.
Your Guide
Chris Richardson
Rising Generation Lead
Chris Richardson is the son of an NYSE-listed founder. He grew up inside the kind of family this firm serves and chose to build outside of it. That’s the seat he works from: rising gen first, advisor second.
He leads the firm’s rising generation practice and runs its rising gen peer circles. The work is succession readiness. The estate planners and trust officers handle the transfer. Chris works on whether the next generation can run what they’re handed. He built the firm’s rising gen readiness assessment and the Family Scorecard, which measure the gap between what the rising gen knows and what the founding generation believes they know, across four domains: access, understanding, intent, and capability.
Harvard Business School, Rising Generation in Family Enterprise · Contributor, The Dysfunctional Family Office · Purposeful Planning Institute
“Authority comes with the name. Legitimacy you have to build. I work on the second one.”
Chris Richardson, Rising Generation Lead
Rising Generation Peer Circle
You are not the only one carrying this.
Our Rising Generation Peer Circle is eight members who share the same reality. Monthly sessions facilitated by Chris Richardson. Twelve months with a ninety-day out. A room where you can say what is actually true.
Learn about Peer Circles →The Questions Nobody Asks Out Loud
What if I don't want the family business?
Chris Richardson
Rising Generation Lead
Then don't take it. Seriously.
The worst thing you can do, for yourself and for the business, is step into something out of guilt or obligation. I've watched rising gen members take roles they never wanted because they didn't think they had permission to say no. It doesn't end well. Not for them. Not for the family. Not for the company.
What we help you figure out is what you actually want. Not what your parents want. Not what the family expects. What you want. Sometimes that's the business. Sometimes it's something completely different. Both are valid. Both take courage.
The goal isn't to get you into the family business. The goal is to help you figure out who you are, and then make a decision from that place instead of from guilt.
Will my parents know what I say?
Chris Richardson
Rising Generation Lead
The short answer: not unless you want them to.
Your conversations with me are yours. What you share in our sessions stays between us unless you decide otherwise. That's not a policy. It's a promise. Because this doesn't work if you're editing yourself to protect someone else's feelings.
I'll be honest. At some point, the important stuff usually needs to be said out loud to the family. That's where the real change happens. But the timing is yours. The words are yours. And when you're ready, we're in the room with you.
Nobody's going to ambush you with your own truth. That's not how this works.
I don't know who I am without the money. Is that normal?
Chris Richardson
Rising Generation Lead
More normal than you think. And more honest than most people your age will ever be about it.
When you grow up with wealth, everything gets tangled together. Your identity. Your relationships. Your sense of what you've earned versus what was given. You start wondering: would my friends still be here without the money? Would I have gotten this opportunity on my own? Do people see me, or do they see my last name?
I've navigated those same questions. Not from a textbook. From my own life. And what I can tell you is that the confusion isn't a weakness. It's the starting point. The people who never ask that question are the ones who end up lost. You're asking it. That means you're already further along than you think.
We start with who you are, not what you have, not what the family expects. Who you actually are. Everything else gets built from there.