Most family offices are built around one person. The founder knows where every entity sits, why a trust was structured a certain way, which advisor to call, and what was agreed to in a side letter years ago. Which works until someone else has to take over.

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The next generation is already becoming more involved. Heirs are joining family councils, helping shape investment strategy, and asking more questions about where the family's wealth is going and why. The question for the family office is not whether leadership will change, it is whether the office will continue to function smoothly when it does.

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As explored in Succession Done Right: Lessons from Warren Buffett's Quiet Transition, fewer than half of family offices have a formal succession plan, and many failed wealth transfers are caused by governance issues rather than poor investment decisions. 

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Succession planning needs to be something the office works on continuously, not something it addresses once when a transition is already underway.

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Here are five areas to focus on:

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1. Make governance part of how the office operates

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A family constitution sitting in a drawer does not do much on its own. Governance needs to show up in the day-to-day work of the family office:

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• Clear roles. Who approves a capital call? Who can access the operating company's financials? Who signs off on a distribution?
• Documented decisions. Keep an investment policy statement, family council charter, and a record of why major decisions were made.
• A succession plan. Identify successors for key family and professional roles and establish a timeline for the transition.

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How MYFO helps: Governance only works if the right people see the right information. In MYFO, each person, whether a trustee, the CFO, an outside accountant or a family member, sees only the entities and assets that matter to their role. When roles change, their access changes too, so permissions keep up with the family.

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2. Get important knowledge out of people's heads

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One of the biggest succession risks is not simply losing a person. It is losing the context they have built up over years: why structures were set up a certain way, where important documents are stored, and who to contact when something needs to be done.

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The goal is to make the office easier for someone new to understand:

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• A current view of every entity and ownership stake
• Key documents stored with the entities and assets they relate to
• A record of changes and who made them

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How MYFO helps: MYFO turns what one person knows into something the whole office can see. The family's full structure is mapped in one place, from individuals and trusts to holding companies and foundations, showing who owns what and how it all rolls up. Documents sit next to the entities and assets they belong to, not in someone's inbox. Because every change is logged along with who made it, a new person can pick up where the last one left off.

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3. Give the next generation real visibility

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Succession does not happen overnight. The next generation should have time to understand the family's structures, obligations, and investment decisions before they are responsible for them.

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That can mean:

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• Teaching heirs how the family's wealth is structured, not just showing them the balance sheet
• Including them in investment and governance discussions
• Giving them responsibility for part of the portfolio or a specific initiative

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It is also worth recognizing that the next generation may not want to simply preserve what already exists. Josh Kushner is one example of the next generation taking a different path. Rather than simply stepping into the family business, he built Thrive Capital into an investment firm of his own. Succession planning should leave room for the next generation to build something of their own.

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How MYFO helps: With MYFO, the next generation can start with view-only access to the parts of the family's wealth they're learning about, and gain more control as they take on responsibility. They can also ask questions about that data in plain language through MYFO's Claude MCP integration.

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4. Plan the financial side of the transition

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Succession also raises practical financial questions. What will the family's wealth look like in ten years? What happens to liquidity if an asset is sold to fund a buyout or equalize an inheritance? Can current spending levels continue across the next generation?

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How MYFO helps: Big succession decisions are easier when you can see what they'll lead to. 

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Cash Flow Forecasting shows where the family's cash will come from and where it will go, including capital calls, taxes and distributions. 

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Scenario Modelling enables families to test a decision, like selling an asset to fund a buyout or balance an inheritance, and see its effect on net worth and liquidity before they commit.

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5. Review the plan every year

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A succession plan written five years ago may no longer reflect the family today. Marriages, births, liquidity events, new jurisdictions, and changes to tax rules can all change the picture.

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An annual review should look at who has access to what, who is responsible for different areas of the office, whether key documents are current, and whether the plan still reflects the family's goals.

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How MYFO helps: With permissions, entities, documents, and tasks in one place, the annual review is easier to manage. Recurring tasks can help keep filings and review dates on track, while AI-assisted document ingestion can identify deadlines such as loan renewals and capital calls as documents come in.

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Continuity should not depend on one person

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The family offices that are prepared for succession are not necessarily the ones with the most complicated structures. They are the ones where important information, decisions, and responsibilities are documented well enough that the office can keep operating when someone steps away.

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That is what MYFO is built to support: a single, secure platform that gives family members and their advisors a shared view of the family's entities, investments, documents, and responsibilities.

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Book a demo to see how MYFO can support succession planning for your family office.

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