The Le Van Company-Recommended Readings

Recommended Reading

39 Critical Questions

For more than a decade we have used the 39 Critical Questions as agenda builders for family discussion.

Each of us has practice boundaries beyond which we do not venture. These are the professional corrals in which we work. Over a professional lifetime, ones corral will change and reshape. The conventional wisdom is that soft issues have something to do with emotions, can make our clients difficult, even crazy, and can get us into all kinds of trouble if we venture too near. Take a fresh look at which soft issues you are corralling in and which soft issues you are corralling out. You may decide to reshape your corral.

Creative Settlements In Fiduciary Litigation

The most creative fiduciary settlements always respect and often leverage the clients’ most important relationships.

Divided Families: Civil Disengagement Instead of War

"A house divided against itself cannot stand" warned Abraham Lincoln, quoting Aesop. Later, as president, Lincoln concluded that war was inevitable in order to preserve the Union. Is there an alternative to war in a divided family?

Doomsday Machine

Bitter family litigation.

Egyptian Business Families: An American View

Sensitive Americans wince at cultural gaffes committed by other Americans traveling abroad. My own cultural sensitivity was put to the test when I was invited to consult with business families in Egypt. Only towards the end did I begin to grasp some of the subtler differences between Egyptian and American business cultures.

A Family Council for the Relational Estate

I've been searching for an expression to describe what's most valuable to a successful business family, other than its wealth. Some suggest "relational estate", and I like it.

Family Dialogue

Family dialogue between the givers and receivers during estate planning can access vital family knowledge that is otherwise inaccessible to parents and their advisors planning alone.

Family Mission Statements: What Estate Advisors Need to Know

A well-crafted family mission statement can significantly affect how an estate plan eventually plays out in the lives of inheritors, because inheritors may influence the way the estate plan operates via the family mission statement.

Family Remodeling

Good genes don't guarantee strong families. Much of family building is pioneering uncharted territory together.

Family Wealth in Crisis

The turbulence in world financial markets confronts wealthy families with acute crisis management.

Hanging On, Letting Go, or "Letting Grow"

Some thirty years ago, an anxious parent removed the training wheels from Lance Armstrong's tiny two-wheeler.

Happiness, Misery and Wealth

What is happiness? Who is happy? And how does one pursue that elusive experience of well-being?

Happiness II: Accentuate the Positive Psychology

Martin Seligman, the founder of "positive psychology", is the most influential psychologist of our day. Findings from his "happiness research" were prominently featured a recent Time magazine report. Seligman's views about the underlying causes of lawyer unhappiness may prove troubling.

Happiness III: Pursuing Jefferson's Happiness Today

What did Thomas Jefferson mean by "the pursuit of happiness" when he penned it into the Declaration of Independence as an inalienable right? In a recent Wall Street Journal column, Darren McMahon explores this curious but carefully chosen phrase.

Healthy Wealth in Business Families

For business families preparing to transmit ownership in active operating companies, intergenerational estate planning is indispensable. The ultimate estate plan may ask some of family members to invest their working lives in the company, and ask others to have their inheritance managed by their relatives indefinitely.

Homo Mobilis: How Wireless Communication Connects and Changes Us

In the April 12, 2008 Economist, Andreas Kluth surveys the effects of wireless communication on how we work, live, love, relate to places and to each other. These are some snippets from his survey.

Incentive Trusts

Some observations from Gerald Le Van’s new book, “Raising Rich Kids.”

Learning to Share

NY Times Columnist Advocates Intergenerational Estate Planning.

Lessons From Geese

Gems about organizational behavior.

Managing Oneself

Peter Drucker’s sage advice on career perspective.

Middle Passage: From Misery to Meaning in Midlife

Living through “mid-life crisis.”

Narcissistic Leaders

New insights into today’s movers and shakers.

Non-Profit Boards

A fresh approach to more effective boards.

Notes on Goleman, Social Intelligence (Bantam 2006)

Social Intelligence is the most important book I've read since the author's Emotional Intelligence published in 1995. Daniel Goleman was New York Times psychology editor for many years. Emotional Intelligence explored neuroscience discoveries about internal interactions between our intellect and our emotions. Social Intelligence details recent neuroscience findings about how human beings connect and interact brain-to-brain. These two books are must reads. For brevity, I omit most of the supporting neuroscientific data, opting instead to summarize the conclusions drawn from that research.