At the Merrill Center for Family Wealth®, we’ve found that families benefit greatly from taking time to design policies that align with their values, mission and culture as they work to navigate their wealth and relationships with intention.

Family policies are principles or guidelines that govern decision-making processes, aim to preserve family unity, manage collective wealth and prepare the rising generation. While not legally binding, these policies provide crucial clarity on issues that legal documents might not fully address. Common policy areas include trust distribution guidelines, rising generation development, marital agreement requirements, family employment, managing shared assets, communication, philanthropy, and conflict resolution. When key family principles remain unspoken, decisions made by family leaders can appear arbitrary or unfair to other family members. This perception can have a particularly detrimental impact during pivotal transitions or turbulent life events, which are often emotionally charged.

The process matters

We've found that the process of creating policies is just as important as the resulting documents themselves. The most effective approach begins with defining the shared family values and the purpose of the wealth.

Rather than using fill-in-the-blank templates, these policies are more effective when they reflect the family’s voice and the family feels ownership of them. We recommend using plain language and inviting input from both older and younger family members during development.

Living documents

Once finalized, policies should be communicated clearly to all family members and treated as “living documents” that may evolve as circumstances change. By maintaining the documents, the family keeps with the core purpose of policies: Preserving family unity while enabling intentional wealth stewardship across generations.

Read the full piece below to learn more about the process of developing family policies and common types of family policies.