A family can successfully preserve its greatest wealth, that…

A family can successfully preserve its greatest wealth, that wealth being the individual human beings who form the family, over a long period of time. A family's wealth consists primarily of its human capital (defined as all the individuals who make up the family) and its intellectual capital (defined as everything that each individual family member knows), and secondarily of its financial capital. The purpose of a family is the enhancement of the individual pursuits of happiness of each of its members in the overall pursuit of the long-term preservation of the family as a whole. Successful long-term wealth preservation requires the creation and maintenance of a system of governance or joint decision making, to the end of making slightly more positive decisions than negative ones over a period of at least one hundred years.

— from The Flight Plan (Purpose/Wisdom/Risk)

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