Flora Dong, Founder and Managing Partner of Ardenwood Advisors, is challenging the conventional focus on succession in family wealth planning, arguing that families must first address a more fundamental question: whether the next generation is ready to participate, and what that participation should look like. With more than 25 years in wealth management, Dong has worked with families facing multigenerational and international circumstances, where these questions grow more complex as children become adults, build careers, move abroad, and form their own priorities.
Dong points out that succession is often treated as a single event, but families typically have many conversations before reaching that point. Key questions include what younger members know, what they want to know, and what responsibilities they are prepared to assume. Importantly, those answers may differ for each individual.
One common question is when younger family members should begin learning about financial matters. Dong does not believe a single age applies to every family. Maturity, interest, family circumstances, and the nature of the information being discussed all influence when and how conversations occur. She distinguishes between helping someone understand the family's broader financial structure and giving that person decision-making responsibility, noting that these steps do not have to happen simultaneously. Early conversations might focus on family business history, the purpose of a family foundation, or the responsibilities tied to shared assets, while more detailed financial information may become relevant later. Dong suggests thinking of involvement as something that develops over time rather than an all-or-nothing decision. Listening, asking questions, and understanding why certain structures exist can be part of the process without expecting immediate decision-making.
Siblings may have very different levels of interest, and Dong cautions families against interpreting those differences too quickly. One sibling may be deeply engaged in a family business or investments, another may have built an unrelated career and have little interest in participating regularly, and a third may want to understand family affairs without taking an active role. Dong notes that different levels of involvement do not necessarily indicate how much someone cares about the family. People have different interests, skills, careers, and comfort levels. The difficult question is how a family recognizes those differences while still being clear about responsibilities.
These conversations can become even more complicated when family members live in different countries. Geographic distance, varied professional experiences, and exposure to different cultures can shape how family members think about ownership, responsibility, philanthropy, or the future of a family enterprise. For internationally connected families, certain decisions may also involve legal or tax considerations across jurisdictions. Dong emphasizes that those matters should be addressed with the appropriate legal and tax professionals.
Dong also distinguishes between transparency and responsibility. Providing a family member with information does not necessarily mean that person should immediately participate in every decision. Similarly, assigning responsibility without sufficient context may create its own challenges. She suggests families ask two separate questions: What does this person need to understand, and what is this person currently prepared to be responsible for? The answers may not be identical. This distinction can matter most when a family has a business, shared entities, philanthropic activities, or financial interests spanning several generations. Rather than assuming every family member should eventually have the same role, families may need to consider how responsibilities could differ based on individual circumstances.
Dong also cautions against treating a family member's current level of interest as permanent. Someone who is uninterested in family financial discussions at 25 may become more engaged later in life. Another person who initially expects to participate in a family enterprise may ultimately choose a different career. People change, and families change, Dong says, and a conversation that does not go very far today may look completely different five years from now. The same is true of the older generation. Founders and parents may discover that their own expectations change as they begin discussing responsibility more openly. A parent who assumed a child would eventually enter the family business may learn that the child has different plans. A founder who expected to remain involved indefinitely may begin thinking differently about their own future role. Those conversations can raise questions that extend beyond financial structures.
Dong believes one of the most important aspects of next-generation planning is recognizing that not every question requires an immediate answer. Families may need time to determine what involvement means for them, and they may also need input from different professional advisors depending on the financial, legal, tax, business, or governance issues involved. The purpose of these conversations is not necessarily to get everyone to the same conclusion, Dong says. Sometimes the first useful step is simply understanding where each person stands. For Dong, that is one reason she prefers to think about next-generation involvement in terms of readiness rather than simply succession. Succession asks what happens next. Readiness asks whether the people involved understand the responsibilities, whether expectations have been discussed, and whether assumptions made by one generation are shared by the next. The next generation is not a single group with one personality or one set of goals, Dong says. They are individuals. Giving them room to ask questions and develop their own understanding can be an important part of the conversation.
