Coppertree Smart Planning Process What does success look like to you? Do you measure it in terms of being able to do anything you want? Or do you measure it along some other dimensions such as a happy marriage, healthy and successful children and grandchildren, or perhaps the accomplishments you achieve throughout your life? How will you realize your dreams? Will it simply require the use of your financial wealth? Will money buy you a happy marriage? Will it guarantee your children’s health? Can you achieve all of your goals with a checkbook? Or will achieving your dreams also involve your personal effort and growth in knowledge and understanding? Can you reach your dreams singularly or will it require the help and support of others? Mark Casella, Coppertree’s founder, created the SMART Planning Process™ (Success Mapping And Review Tool) to help families create their own road map to reach their vision of success. Using the SMART Planning Process™, Coppertree helps families to better use their resources defined as: time, knowledge, experience, connections and economic resources, in pursuit of what matters most. Through the SMART Planning Process™, families are guided through a process to discern: Who we are as a Family. What it is about the Family story that makes us special and taking the time to share the Family story with present generations of the Family? How family members want to enjoy life, achieve goals, make a difference, and share beliefs with others – individually, collectively, in the workplace, and within our communities. How we are currently deploying our family capital – our time, knowledge, experience, connections, and economic resources. What we need to do to balance our vision to our reality in terms of achieving true success.

Personal Interviews

Coppertree begins the SMART Planning Process™ with Family interviews. This enables family members to articulate their story and what their dreams are for the future. Many times a Family’s unique story has not been shared with the Family’s younger generations. This may also hold true for understanding what the Family’s dreams are for the future. By sharing their unique journey as a Family, the Members have a chance to understand what values and traditions were used to form their Family. This phase of the process is also used to gain an understanding as to how the Family currently makes decisions around their family capital resources.

Success Mapping

The next step is to use the information gathered during the interviews to form each Family Member’s Personal Success Map™. This is the phase of the process that quantifies what forms and amounts of capital resources Family Members will need in their quest for happiness, achievement, significance and legacy. A sources and uses analysis is conducted to assess how Family Members are presently using their Family capital. This is compared to the capital resources they need to achieve what matters most as defined by their Success Maps.

Resource Analysis and Allocation

After Family Members’ Success Maps have been produced, Coppertree will help the Family to prioritize and categorize how best to pursue what matters most. This becomes the Family’s Strategic Plan which defines the presenting priorities for a twelve month period of time. Using all forms of the Family’s capital, the Family and Family Members are given specific action plans to achieve the goals they have set for themselves within the Success Mapping Process.

Action Plan and Results

As the Family moves forward to achieve what they have identified as a successful life, a long-term Family Continuity Plan can also be created. It serves as the Family’s guidepost for perpetuating the Family’s Legacy for several generations. The Family Continuity Plan can contain the Family’s formal Vision, Mission, and Family Agreements or Family Charter. This provides guidance to the Family with regard to how they agree to make decisions together in a way that reflects their underlying vision and values.

The Family Continuity Plan is intended to stand the test of time. Babies are born, people marry. As annual goals and strategies are realized they are replaced with new plans. Using the Family Continuity Plan as a basis for decision-making and direction, the Family’s Annual Strategic Plans ensure the Family’s Legacy thrives for generations.