Avery Fontaine, head of Hawthorn Purpose for PNC Private Bank Hawthorn, helps families address the human side of wealth. She talks about how families can find purpose:
“Today, we see that while investments are obviously a cornerstone — preserving wealth is clearly still important — the human side of wealth is gaining prominence and sometimes even eclipsing preserving the wealth.
“The human side of wealth has two dimensions: the internal and the external. Hawthorn Purpose combines the Institute for Family Success, which focuses on the internal workings and health of the family; and our Philanthropy and Impact team, which focuses on how the family shows up and creates impact in their community and their chosen areas of interest.
“We have a process we go through to talk about purpose:
- Identify. We identify what’s going on with the family: what their priorities are right now and for the future. We’re trying to get away from the phrase ‘family dynamics’ — there can be some shame associated with that if the dynamics are poor. We don’t want to make people feel that they’re already behind if the family doesn’t get along.
- Understand. We delve a little deeper on the inner workings of the family, and we also look at the family’s philanthropic and/or community capital — how they show up outside the family. How are they deploying capital in a way that reflects who they are and what they want to accomplish? Traditionally, this has been a philanthropic conversation, but that is changing to reflect a wider range of options for community engagement and problem-solving.
- Engage. What is the tailored approach that this family needs? They may need to think through some things about how they run as a family, and a family constitution can be one deliverable within their family governance framework. Then you have questions about how to engage the rising generation, the family as a whole, and of course, in their community.”