It is often repeated that families go from ‘clogs to clogs in three generations’; wealth earned in one generation seldom lasts through to the third.
Given the hard work involved in building such fortunes, it can be difficult to understand how such seemingly successful families so often fail in their attempts to transfer wealth.
Some immediate explanations spring to mind: a lack of diversification of assets, insufficient interest from the inheriting generation, or rigid control by the previous generation.