Please choose a topic to the left to learn about our approach.

The Plan

The Family Continuity Plan is a mechanism that allows better communication and assists families as they make important decisions. Using this plan, the united family can take actions based upon their shared mission and vision.

Coppertree guides the family in formulating its own continuity plan - just as a business leader would develop a strategic plan for a business. It is also the touchstone for the family’s beliefs and expectations, embodied in the Family Statement of Mission and Vision. The Family Continuity Plan is a living document, designed to grow and evolve just as the family does.

The Family Continuity Plan provides decision making guidance in situations such as:

• How the shared history and values are communicated, preserved and enhanced.


• How the family will choose leaders.


• How often the family will meet.


• How the family interacts with the enterprise’s board of directors.


• How the family’s wealth transitions through generations.


• How to be a part of the family enterprise.


• How new family members are incorporated into the family decision making process.

Does your family have a continuity plan? Can you live with the consequences of not having one?

The Family Vision

Each member of your family will have a different idea of what personal happiness means. Understanding their individual journeys and how they want to pursue happiness, health, and success is vitally important to the lasting unity of the family.

Coppertree approaches this phase of our work by interviewing each family member so that we may understand and appreciate their own personal journey. Our goal is to determine how individual family members describe happiness, their sense of purpose, and what it means to them to be successful. Having discerned each member’s personal definition of success, we can better understand how each member can contribute to the family’s legacy.

The Family Mission

Are you the founder of your family? Are you the next generation that has joined your family’s journey that began long ago? Are you considered a leader in your family? Every family’s journey is a story – a story you can read not only in its genealogy, but also in the shared values and goals that tie its members together and provide continuity over generations. What can be learned from your family’s story?

Coppertree invests time in understanding this family story to learn about your shared values and traditions. The lessons of the family’s story can be used to craft a road map of values to guide the family as it continues its journey into the future.

The unique combination of the family’s road map of values and each family member’s view of success, help form the family vision. This is the basis for a Family Continuity Plan.

The Future Begins With Today

The formation of a Family Continuity Plan includes an analysis of the family’s existing resources. These resources may exist as liquid assets, real estate, trusts, a family foundation, or a family owned business enterprise. Understanding the current state of the family’s resources is the starting point for determining future plans.

Coppertree begins this phase of our discovery process by conducting an in-depth analysis of how these resources are structured and allocated. Based on our interviews, research, and analysis, we will then be able to help you develop a Family Continuity Plan that perpetuates your family’s legacy.

The Family Continuity Plan will be based on an analysis of the present condition of the family’s resources, the family’s vision for its future, and the challenges the family will face.