For family officeexecutives and advisors.

A family office usually knows the next generation better than any other advisor. You may have run the education sessions, and seen who speaks at family meetings and who stays quiet, and watched which of them the founder turns to.

What do you see from inside the office?

When the successor to the operating business is not yet ready to lead, it tends to show in places only the office sees.

• Family meetings drift back to the founder. The successor presents, and the questions go to the parent. Siblings and cousins notice.
• Next-generation education has done its part. The successor understands the governance, the structure and the investment policy. What they lack is not information.
• The office is pulled into the gap. Executives call the office, or the founder, rather than the successor, because that is where decisions have always been made.
• The family council or board is waiting. The structure for the handover exists. Nobody is sure the person is ready to stand in it.

That last point is the heart of it. The office can build the structure and prepare the family. Preparing one person to carry the authority of the role is a different piece of work. What a family office does for the next generation describes where the office’s usual services end.

Where does Second Chair™ fit, and where does it not?

Second Chair™ is a six-month, one-to-one program for the successor who has decided to lead the family business. The work is how they lead the board, the senior team and the family, practised on the real events in the next six months.

What it leaves to the office and the family’s other advisors:

• Governance design: the family council, the family constitution, board composition.
• Succession planning, timing and the question of who should succeed.
• Investment, tax, legal and ownership matters.
• Group education for the wider next generation.

It complements that work rather than overlapping with it. A family constitution sets long-term rules for the family. The Handover Charter that ends a Second Chair™ engagement makes one specific handover work, and it should sit consistently with whatever the office has already helped the family agree.

When is a referral a good fit?

The office is well placed to judge this, because you can see the family as a whole.

It fits when:

• One successor, roughly 25 to 45, has decided to take the role in the operating business.
• They will step into leadership or a board seat within one to three years.
• The concern is how they lead people: the board, the senior team, the family table.
• The founder is still present and willing to take part in a handover session.

It does not fit when:

• The successor has not decided, or the family has not yet chosen between candidates.
• The real need is governance, structure or wealth planning.
• The family wants an assessment for the file rather than a change in how the successor leads.

How Second Chair™ decides whether a family is a fit sets out the same criteria from the family’s side.

How does a referral work?

Family offices often act for several family members at once, which makes care about who agrees to what especially important.

1. Start with the principal. Raise the idea with the founder or whoever the office reports to on this matter, as one option among several.
2. Involve the successor early. Development imposed on a successor rarely works. Introducing a coach to your son or daughter can be passed to the parent.
3. Agree what you will share. Before naming the family in any request, agree it with them. A role, an industry and a rough timeline are usually enough.
4. Use the request form. It has an option for “a family office or private banker”. Only name and email are required.

Nikola reads every request personally. Where there is a fit, he replies within three business days with a personal email and a one-time link to arrange a private conversation. How advisors refer a family to a coach covers the details.

How is discretion handled?

The office’s own standard of discretion is the right benchmark.

• Every engagement begins under a mutual NDA.
• No case studies are published, and no families are named.
• The parent receives a monthly briefing on progress and priorities. What the successor says in sessions stays between coach and successor.
• Stakeholder interviews in the diagnostic are confidential.

Engagements begin at $50,000, paid in full by the family or the company. There is no guarantee and no refund.

To discuss a family or the approach, request a private conversation. The Handover Charter and the family meeting agenda template may be useful to the office directly.