--地位新象征──家族使命宣言

　地位新象征──家族使命宣言使命宣言正从董事会走进家庭。越来越多的百万富翁和亿万富翁为避免后果惨重的矛盾纠纷，开始制定家庭使命宣言──充斥着“遗产”、“价值”和“管理”这类高深词汇的协议，希望确保家族和财富世代长青。这类宣言又叫“家庭宪法”、“战略计划”或“家庭守则”，从短至一句话到长至10页篇幅不等，内容涵盖家族事宜的方方面面──从财产继承、慈善事业到宗教信仰和教育，乃至钱财的意义，不一而足。有些宣言甚至会对“本家族成员”进行界定(有时姻亲并不算在家族成员之列)。使命宣言旨在帮助豪门之家保持家庭和睦。家族成员希望通过制定一套基本宗旨来避免亲戚之间的钱财之争；并且还希望能为后代树立道德标准，使子子孙孙不仅继承财富，还会继承价值观。美国加州咨询公司Money, Meaning and Choices Institute便为客户撰写这类宣言，其创始人之一史蒂文•古德巴特(Stephen Goldbart)说，使命宣言使家庭成员有机会思考其指导原则和价值观；宣言中会包括诸如“我们的目的是什么？我们家族的目标是什么？我们前进的动力是什么？”这样的内容。随着越来越多的富豪希望把财富传给后代以打造家族王朝，使命宣言也变得越来越炙手可热。目前，美国可投资资产不少于100万美元的家庭有450万户。因为现在的富豪们有很多是企业家或高级管理人士，他们把自己的战略眼光和微观管理的本事用在了家庭事务上。 Money, Meaning and Choices Institute称，过去5年中，公司的使命宣言业务翻了一番还要多，现在每周都至少要做一份。新泽西州的顾问公司Relative Solutions也迎来了激增的使命宣言业务。加州的IFF Advisors也在积极从事使命宣言生意，公司创始人之一、家庭财富心理学家李•豪斯纳(Lee Hausner)说，家庭使命宣言非常时髦。据业内人士说，雇佣一位顾问撰写宣言，每份要花1.5万美元到10万美元。有些人怀疑用一份使命宣言来约束家庭成员可能会适得其反，不但无法缓解紧张状况，还会使其雪上加霜。有些管理人士说，把使命宣言用在家庭中这种想法值得商榷。恒康(John Hancock)前首席执行官大卫•达力桑德罗(David D'Alessandro)说，这太荒唐了，你该如何向十几岁的孩子解释使命宣言是怎么回事？是不是要说“在使命宣言上签名，否则我一个子儿都不留给你？”他认为整件事虚伪做作之极。有些人认为使命宣言颇有价值。在比尔•乔治(Bill George)担任医疗产品制造商美敦力公司(Medtronic Inc.)总裁期间，他依靠公司的使命宣言使管理团队团结一致，不曾懈怠。他说，使命宣言是把公司各部“粘”在一起的胶水。因此，当他创立乔治家族基金会时，便制定了一份使命宣言来约束自己的孩子和相关人员。宣言的宗旨之一是：“终生治疗”，它强调健康，并扶持青少年和教育项目。乔治说，继承的问题至关重要；问题是，有那么多家族从一贫如洗变得腰缠万贯，该如何使家族的价值观代代相传，而不仅仅是钱财。一些宣言佳作言简意赅。佛罗里达州财富顾问公司Genspring Family Offices总裁玛利亚•拉格马西诺(Maria Elena Lagomasino)引述了一对富豪夫妇所写的“一句话”宣言，“我们希望财富能帮助后代发现他们的激情所在，并在他们的领域中表现优秀”。拉格马西诺说，这对富豪夫妇的三个女儿都进了美国长春藤名校，并各个事业有成。拉格马西诺还说，这对夫妇拟定这份使命宣言，是为了“使你不必为生计发愁，如果生计问题是你成为优秀的画家、教师或诗人的绊脚石”，使命宣言目的在于自我实现，而不是花钱上。 Citi Private Bank旗下家庭财富顾问业务的董事总经理格兰•科兰德(Glenn Kurlander)曾帮助拟定过一份六页长的宣言，其中引用了托马斯•布朗宁(Thomas Browne)爵士和亚力山大•波普(Alexander Pope)的话。它首先提出了家庭成员的“五点”计划，即“重视同情心、诚实、正直、激情和承诺”，而且要“明白财富无法改变我们最根本的个人和家族身份”。家庭使命宣言并不新鲜。小约翰•洛克菲勒(John D. Rockefeller Jr.)曾让人把他的座右铭刻在一块石碑上，面向洛克菲勒中心，上面刻有这样的话：“我相信每种权利同时也意味着责任；机遇同时也是义务；财产同时也是职责”。然而，使命宣言有时也无法使一个家族紧密团结起来。1995年，罗伯特•普利滋克(Robert Pritzker)和杰伊•普利滋克(Jay Pritzker)把这个亿万富豪之家的信条写到了给某些下一代的备忘录中，督促他们继续以一个整体经营家族财富，并造福所有家族成员。他们写到，“我们这一代和我们的祖先坚信这样的信条：我们消费的不应超过我们个人赚取的或贡献给家族及社会的财富”。 7年之后，罗伯特•普利滋克的女儿起诉了家族成员，索赔50亿美元。 Robert Frank Mission statements are moving from the boardroom to the family room. A growing number of multimillionaires and billionaires, hoping to stave off costly feuds, are drawing up family mission statements -- lofty treatises filled with words like 'legacy,' 'values' and 'stewardship' that aim to carry rich families (and their fortunes) safely through the ages. These statements, also known as 'family constitutions,' 'strategic plans' or 'family codes of conduct,' can range in length from a single sentence to 10 pages. They give a clan's proclamations on everything from inheritance and philanthropy to religion, education and the purpose of wealth. Some even define what constitutes 'the family' (i.e., in-laws sometimes don't count). The goal of mission statements is to help keep the peace in affluent families. By agreeing on a basic set of principles, families hope to avoid lawsuits between relatives about money. They also hope to draw up moral guides for future generations, so that kids and grandkids will inherit values as well as wealth. 'The family mission statement is a chance for the family to think through what are their guiding principles and values that define them,' says Stephen Goldbart, co-founder of the Money, Meaning and Choices Institute, a consulting firm in Kentfield, Calif., that helps write up such documents. 'It says 'What are we about? What is our purpose as a family and what drives us forward?'' Mission statements are surging in popularity, along with the number of rich people who are passing down wealth in hopes of creating family dynasties. There are now 4.5 million U.S. households with investible assets of $1 million or more. Since Side Small Cabinets so many of today's wealthy are entrepreneurs or executives, they're transferring their obsession with strategic visions and micromanagement to their families. Money, Meaning and Choices say its mission statement business has more than doubled over the past five years and that it now works on at least one a week. Relative Solutions, a New Jersey-based advisory firm, says its mission-statement side rod assy business has also surged. 'Family mission statements have become very trendy,' says Lee Hausner, a family-wealth psychologist and co-founder of IFF Advisors in Irvine, Calif., which also is doing a brisk trade in mission statements. The cost of hiring an adviser to create a statement can run from $15,000 to $100,000, advisers say. Granted, some caution that getting family members to agree on a mission statement can create the very tensions they are supposed to diffuse. And some executives say the idea of applying a mission statement to their families is questionable. Shovels 'It's ridiculous,' says David D'Alessandro, the former chief executive of John Hancock. 'How do you explain a mission statement to a teenager? Do you say 'Sign this or I cut you out of the will?' I find the whole thing remarkably pretentious.' Others find them valuable. When Bill George was CEO of Medtronic Inc. he relied on the medical-product company's mission statement to focus the troops and maintain standards. 'The mission statement is the glue that keeps a company together,' SG Selenium Glass he says. So when he set up the George Family Foundation he created a mission statement that his kids and others could follow. Among its principles: 'whole-life healing,' with an emphasis on wellness, and supporting youth and education programs. 'The idea of legacy is really important here,' Mr. George says. 'The problem is, you have so many families who have gone from rags to riches and how do you pass values through a series of generations and not just the money.' Some of the best statements are the shortest. Maria Elena Lagomasino, CEO of Genspring Family Offices, a wealth advisory firm in Palm Beach, Side Cabinet Fla., cites a one-sentence statement written by a wealthy couple. It said, 'We want our capital to allow our children and their children to be able to find their passion and pursue it with excellence.' Their three daughters went on to Ivy League schools and successful careers, Ms. Lagomasino says. 'What they were Service Entrance Cap saying with the mission statement was 'Don't worry about whether you can earn a living if that gets in the way of you being the best painter or teacher or poet.' It was about self-realization, not spending.' Glenn Kurlander, managing director of Citi Private Bank's family wealth advisory services, helped craft a six-page statement that quotes Sir Side Rod Assembly Thomas Browne and Alexander Pope. It begins with a five-point plan for the family to, among other things, 'value compassion, honesty, integrity, passion and engagement,' and to be 'secure in the knowledge that our financial capital cannot change our fundamental individual and family identity.' Family mission statements aren't entirely new. John D. Rockefeller Jr. had his motto inscribed on a stone tablet facing Rockefeller shank rod Center. It reads, in part, 'I believe that every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation; every possession, a duty.' Yet mission statements don't always keep a family together. In 1995, Robert and Jay Pritzker set forth the billionaire clan's credo in a memo to some sheet metal chassis members of the next generation, urging them to continue running the family's finances as a single entity to benefit all. 'Our generation and our forebears were raised with the concept that we not spend more than we, as individuals, earned or contributed to the Family and society,' they wrote. Seven years later, Robert Pritzker's daughter sued family members seeking $5 billion.

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