What a bank's next-generation program covers, and what it does not

Next-generation programs run by private banks and wealth managers typically cover wealth and its responsibilities: investing, financial literacy, family governance, philanthropy, family values, and networking with peers from other wealthy families. They are usually delivered as events, workshops or residential courses for groups. What they rarely cover is the individual, practised work of leading a specific company: running its board, speaking to its people, leading executives with more tenure and agreeing the handover with the founder. For a successor about to take over an operating business, that gap is often the one that matters most.

What these programs typically include

Programs differ between institutions, but most draw on a similar set of themes:

Wealth and investing: how portfolios work, asset classes, risk, working with advisors.
Financial literacy: reading statements, understanding structures, trusts and holding companies.
Family governance: family constitutions, family councils, shareholder agreements.
Philanthropy and impact: family foundations, giving strategies, responsible investment.
Values and legacy: what the family stands for and how to keep it together.
Peer networks: meeting others in the same position, often across countries.

They are often offered to clients’ families as part of the wider relationship, and they can be valuable, particularly for the network and for understanding the family’s wealth.

What they do well

They prepare heirs to be responsible owners of wealth, not just recipients of it.
They create a peer group of people facing similar questions, which can be reassuring.
They introduce governance ideas that help families organise themselves.
They build a relationship between the next generation and the family’s advisors.

What they usually do not cover

Leading an operating company

Most programs are designed for heirs to wealth in general, many of whom will never run a business. They rarely focus on what it takes to lead a particular company day to day.

Individual practice

Group formats teach concepts. They do not usually give a successor repeated, recorded practice of their own board presentation, their own company address or their own difficult conversation, with detailed feedback.

Real upcoming events

Programs follow their own calendar. A successor’s most important moments, the next board meeting, the first company address, the family meeting, happen on the company’s calendar.

The founder relationship

How a successor disagrees with their parent, and how the two of them agree the handover, is deeply specific to each family and rarely addressed in a group setting.

A useful way to see it

One way to describe the division of labour: lawyers prepare the structure, banks prepare the wealth, and the person who has to stand up and lead often has to prepare on their own.

That is not a criticism of bank programs. They are built for a different purpose, and they do it well. The point is that a successor who is about to lead an operating business usually needs both: the understanding of wealth and governance that these programs provide, and individual preparation for leading the company itself.

Questions to ask about any next-generation program

Is it designed for heirs to wealth in general, or for successors who will run a business?
Is it group-based or one to one?
Does it work on the successor’s real upcoming events?
Does it include practice and recorded feedback, or mainly presentations and discussion?
Does it involve the founder, and if so, how?

In short

Bank and wealth manager next-generation programs typically cover investing, financial literacy, governance, philanthropy, values and peer networks.
They are valuable for preparing responsible owners and building a network.
They rarely include individual, practised preparation for leading a specific company, on its real calendar, alongside the founder.
Successors who will run an operating business usually benefit from both kinds of preparation.

Second Chair™ works one to one with the successor on the leadership side, alongside the family’s existing advisors. How the method works.