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Are family trusts a burden or a tool to enhance the lives of beneficiaries?

Friend and colleague Hartley Goldstone was recently interviewed for Family Wealth Report about his new book Family Trusts: A Guide for Beneficiaries, Trustees, Trust Protectors and Trust Creators coauthored with Jay Hughes and Keith Whitaker. From the interview conducted by family office consultant Joe Reilly:

Joe Reilly: In Family Trusts, it is mentioned that most beneficiaries, an overwhelming majority in fact, believe their trusts are a burden. Why do you think that is?

Hartley Goldstone: It comes from being wedded to a predominantly negative view of trusts. Let me explain. Much of my work is helping trustees and beneficiaries develop productive relationships. If early on I simply ask: "What’s a trust?" The most common responses are - in so many words - that a trust is primarily a receptacle to hold assets, or a tax strategy, or a legal document. That view amounts to a trust being experienced as a transaction, rather than as a gift having “spirit.”

We stress in Family Trusts that first and foremost trusts are human relationships. And that the highest purpose of a trust is to enhance the lives of the beneficiaries. In this context, "enhance" means that a trust is seen as a relationship between beneficiary and trustee that supports the beneficiary’s maturity and independence. Contrast that with lifestyle “subsidies,” which can have the opposite effect. Agreement on the “human relationship” and “enhancement” principles is an important step toward re-framing a trust from being seen as a burden, to being seen as the gift of an amazing resource.

Joe Reilly: How do you deal with resistance from benefactors who would like a more heavy hand?

Click to read the whole interview.

Added: Recording now available! Benefits of Mindfulness, Self-Awareness, and Reflection in Providing Exceptional Client Service

Added April 28, 2016: The recording of this interview is now available for you to hear. Click to listen to "Benefits of Mindfulness, Self-Awareness, and Reflection in Providing Exceptional Client Service."

An excellent interview about the role of mindfulness and self-awareness in client service is coming up on April 26! Sponsored by Purposeful Planning Institute (PPI), this teleconference will feature my wise, knowledgeable colleague Dr. Francine Campone. The description of what she and I will be talking about is below.

If you are not a member of PPI, the organization's founder John A. Warnick is kind enough to offer guest access which you can get by emailing Julie Dorosz. (All requests for guest access must be received by 5pm ET on April 25th.)

The teleconference details:

Title: Benefits of Mindfulness, Self-Awareness and Reflection in Providing Exceptional Client Service

Date: April 26, 2016

Time: Noon ET (60 Minutes)

Guest Speaker: Dr. Francine Campone, Director, Evidence Based Coaching Program, Fielding Graduate University

Host: Stephanie West Allen, JD, PPI Dean of Neuroscience and Contemplative Practices

Description: Dr. Francine Campone, Director of Fielding University’s Evidence-Based Coaching Program and ordained Zen Buddhist, will talk about why the ancient Greek aphorism “Know thyself” is excellent advice for service professionals if they want to add genuine value to their clients’ lives. Dr. Campone will describe reflective ways of interacting with clients and a few of the benefits of using a reflective process, both for the practitioner and the client he or she serves.  Because she believes in the importance of verifying the efficacy of practices she uses and recommends, she will talk about the importance of basing them on good research and other credible evidence. And finally Dr. Campone will recommend some useful and simple practices to increase reflective and mindful client service.

Click to read more about Dr. Campone.

I hope many of you can join us on the 26th.

The Billable Hour: Damaging to Your Brain, Detrimental to Life Satisfaction, Destructive to Client Trust?

Earlier this week I was part of a teleconference sponsored by the Purposeful Planning Institute about the problems with using the billable hour as a way to charge for your services. The recording is now available so you can listen in. A bit about the program from the PPI announcement:

Title: The Billable Hour: Damaging to Your Brain, Detrimental to Life Satisfaction, and Destructive to Client Trust?

Date: March 1, 2016

Guest Speakers: Ronald J. Baker, World-Renowned Value Pricing Expert and Founder of VeraSage Institute, and Stephanie West Allen, JD, PPI Dean of Neuroscience and Contemplative Practices

Host: Hartley Goldstone, Principal of Trustscape LLC, Research Fellow at Wise Counsel Research Associates, and PPI Dean of the Trustscape

Description:  Hartley Goldstone, Dean of the Trustscape, interviews world-renowned value pricing expert Ron Baker and Dean of Neuroscience and Reflective Practices Stephanie West Allen about the effects the billable hour has on our minds and brains, professional and personal lives, and client satisfaction.  Baker also talks about an effective alternative to the billable hour which he has perfected over many years working with lawyers, accountants, and other knowledge professionals.

Reading Recommendations & Resources:
 
The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science by Norman Doidge M.D.

You Are Not Your Brain: The 4-Step Solution for Changing Bad Habits, Ending Unhealthy Thinking, and Taking Control of Your Life by Jeffrey M. Schwartz, Rebecca Gladding MD

Two Blog Posts by Stephanie West Allen on the topic:

• Slate asks if law firm clients could finally kill off the billable hour: The lawyer brain may resist the killing
  
• Seen any "fidgety, erratic and rash" lawyers lately? Or been one?

Purposeful Quote: “At every crossway on the road that leads to the future each progressive spirit is opposed by a thousand men appointed to guard the past.” -  Maurice Maeterlinck (1862—1949), Belgian Nobel Laureate in literature, 1911

Click here to listen to the program now.

Note (added March 4, 2106): Click to read an overview of Ron Baker's approach to value pricing process in "Pricing on Purpose: How to Implement Value Pricing in Your Firm" (Journal of Accountancy).

Which clients are a good fit for you? And with whom should you perhaps not work?

What can happen when you and a client are not a good fit? Do you know why a mismatch could be occurring? What can you do to remedy miscommunication, confusion, even conflict or stress? Dr. Susan Wolcott may have some solutions.

Earlier this month, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Wolcott about the work she has done over many years. (Click to listen to that interview.) Dr. Wolcott teaches audiences around the world about the ways we each think. In the interview I conducted of her for Purposeful Planning Institute, she talked about client service and some problems that can result if a service professional such as a lawyer or financial consultant does not think in the same way as his or her client.

Susan began by giving an overview of the most common thinking styles and then talked about what happen if there is a mismatch between the service professional and the client. She also talked about remedies for some of these mismatches.

A more complete description of the interview and a short bio of Dr. Wolcott can be found here. Why not listen now to Dr. Susan Wolcott as she and I talk about "Steps for Better Thinking: Steps for Better Client Service"?

Note: I am happy to report that I have heard positive comments on the interview from a number of people. For example, Hartley Goldstone wrote, "Susan's framework for understanding thinking processes will help me in my work preparing trustees and trust beneficiaries. The interview with Stephanie is a great introduction to the wealth of material that appears on Susan's website." Link to Susan Wolcott's Web site.

Bonus: Click to read a related blog post titled "Do clients need to fit into your bed? Here's a process to decrease the number of Procrustean professionals."

Interview of lawyer mediator Gary Friedman: How Conflict Professionals Can Use Self-Reflection to Help Their Clients

This week I had the pleasure of interviewing long-time mediator and mediation trainer Gary Friedman. The sponsoring organization Purposeful Planning Institute (about which I have blogged here, here, and here; and for which I am Dean of Neuroscience and Contemplative Practices) is one that is close to my heart. The recording of this teleconference with a wise and thoughtful conflict professional was much appreciated and I thank both Gary and PPI. I hope you will enjoy listening.

The PPI announcement of the teleconference with links for listening and reading is below.

Inside Out: How Conflict Professionals Can Use Self-Reflection to Help Their Clients

Audio File: Download/Play Recording
 
Date: August 11, 2015
 
Guest Speaker: Gary J. Friedman,  Co-Founder, The Center for Understanding in Conflict (formerly the Center for Mediation in Law)
 
Host: Stephanie West Allen, JD, PPI Dean of Neuroscience and Contemplative Practices
 
Handout: Introduction & Excerpt from Inside Out by Gary Friedman
 
Overview:  The focus of this interview is on a central tool that all conflict professionals can develop, the ability to use their understanding of their inner lives to help their clients deal with conflict.  Using tools of self-awareness, the professional can enhance their ability to bring their full attention to their engagement with the client, work with their own feelings, especially negative reactions, to bring them closer to the clients, understand and deepen their commitment to their work, and open a path between them and their client that will solve the external problem.
 
Important Points:

• If we limit our focus to the external dimensions of our clients’ problems we are really limiting our ability to effectively solve them. Understanding the internal dimensions of problems (the emotional and human element) is really at the core.
• Effective communication with others requires far more than simply listening to the words of the client, but requires the use of all our senses. Effective listening is a skill and we can all learn to avoid distractions and be truly present with our clients and in the moment with them.
• The professional’s emotional reactions to the client, particularly feelings that are accompanied by judgments, if left unattended can create walls of separation between professional and client. There is no such thing as being nonjudgmental, and the question should not be whether or not we have judgments, but what to do with them when we have them.

Purposeful Quote:  “Every conflict begins with thoughts of fear, animosity and aggression which pass through some people’s minds and spread like wildfire.  The only antidote to these aberrations is to take on fully the suffering of others.”  – Matthieu Ricard
 
Reading Recommendation: Inside Out: How Conflict Professionals Can Use Self-Reflection to Help Their Clients by Gary Friedman (available online here) [the book is also available here]

Note (added August 27, 2015): Click to learn more about Self-Reflection for Conflict Professionals Intensive (SCPI), the program Friedman describes in the interview and his latest book.

Join us next week for a teleseminar on Polarity Thinking in trusts and estates

On Tuesday, June 30, 2015, at 12 Eastern, 9 Pacific AM, I will be moderating a teleseminar for Purposeful Planning Institute (PPI). The program description is below. Because of the topic and speakers, this will be an hour that is very informative and stimulating.

If you are not a member of PPI, you may get a guest pass for this event by emailing here.

Teleconference Details

Title: New Tools in the Trustscape: How Polarity Thinking Addresses Dilemmas that Simply Won't Go Away

Date: June 30, 2015

Time: Noon ET (60 Minutes)

Guest Speakers: Daniel P. Felix, The Professional Trustee and Neesa Sweet, The Braided River Group

Description: Polarity Thinking shines a bright light on hidden factors in the trustscape -- interdependencies that have the power to prevent solutions and keep trustees, their advisors and their client families on a literal "seesaw" of unsolvable questions. Polarity Thinking is an approach that fosters true Practical Wisdom. The result is even greater success in dealing with conflict, change, complexity, and communications, as well as both chronic and cultural issues.

Note about the word "trustscape":

"Our term trustscape describes a subsystem within the larger family system.  Members of the trustscape are those connected by a trust agreement - trust-creators, trustees, beneficiaries, trust-protectors, committees, and their advisors."

--Hartley Goldstone

Note (added September 3, 2015):

Below is the link to the interview. Also included is other related information.

My alma mater now has a dedicated room for law students to engage in reflective practices

I was happy to see that Santa Clara Law now has a room in the library for law students, staff, and faculty. Its purpose?

It is our hope that students utilize this space for silent meditation, prayer, and reflection.  A number of studies have demonstrated the value of mindfulness and meditation and its connection to academic achievement.  We aspire to make mindfulness a practice at Santa Clara Law that is open to everyone regardless of religious affiliation or background.

Read more here.

When I saw that the only benefits of these practices mentioned in the writeup were academic achievement and decompressing, I was initially disappointed. Coincidentally, at lunch today, I was talking with another member of Colorado Contemplative Lawyers Society about how disheartening it is that the benefit of improved client service is seldom mentioned in articles and posts about mindfulness in the law. And then I saw the SCU Law writeup ended with the wonderful words of The Prayer of Saint Francis and I smiled. "... grant that I may not so much seek To be consoled as to console ...  ." Yep, that can be a benefit of reflective practices!

Memo to your calendar: I'll interview Gary Friedman on August 11 about the value of self-awareness for excellent client service

I was recently appointed one of the Deans of the Purposeful Planning Institute: Dean of Neuroscience and Contemplative Practices. Over the years, I have been very happy to be involved with such a fine organization so am pleased to now serve in this capacity. Click for more information about all the Deans for PPI; as you can see, they make up a talented group.

As a Dean, I am responsible for occasionally interviewing guests on PPI's weekly teleconferences. My first interviewee will be long-time friend and colleague Gary Friedman. I will be talking with Gary about his newest book Inside Out: How Conflict Professionals Can Use Self-Reflection to Help Their Clients. He will tell us about the important role self-awareness and reflective practices play in working effectively with clients, particularly as a conflict professional. We will also hear from him about a program he's developed to increase professional self-awareness. This program is a major focus of Inside Out, a book I highly recommend. Please join us on August 11, at noon Eastern. If you are not a member of PPI, you may acquire guest access by emailing.

Also in August . . .

Each year, PPI holds its annual Rendezvous, an opportunity to learn and to meet some extraordinary people from around the world. This year the event will be held August 5-7. Here's more information about the Rendezvous. Consider coming to Colorado this summer for a truly unique gathering.

Thinking about our mortality can have a big effect on how we spend, give, or bequeath our money

Being aware of death influences our money behavior. The research about this behavior is intriguing and instructional—and very important to understand for those of us who work with clients and their money. As a quick and partial overview of what researchers have learned, read "Grim Givers: How Thoughts of Death Open Wallets" (New York Observer). Excerpt:

Yet we humans are practical animals. When confronted with the terrifying vision of our own expiration date, we get to work. We create meaning in our lives by reinforcing our cultural values, erecting buildings, making art, teaching—and writing charitable checks.

There’s even a hypothesis for this. With the alarming name Terror Management Theory, it’s the brainchild of academics Jeff Greenberg, Sheldon Solomon and Tom Pyszczynski, who’ve been investigating it for over 25 years.

The idea—set out in their forthcoming book, The Worm at the Core: On the Role of Death in Life—is that knowledge of our own death (“mortality salience,” as it’s known) is a powerful force shaping our actions, behaviors and beliefs.

Click to read the rest. The book mentioned above will be out in May but is now available for preorder.

Can drawing improve lawyering and mediation skills? Art is helping some members of the medical profession

Although this article uses the neuromythology of right brain/left brain, and is focusing on the medical profession, it nevertheless includes some observations that could prove useful for lawyers and other conflict practitioners. From an article in Philadelphia's The Inquirer "Restoring left-brain activities to medical school" (a title that is puzzling as it does not fit the article even if one uses the neuromyth of the brain being divided in function):

Medical education is in a crisis. According to a study in the Annals of Internal Medicine, half of 4,287 students surveyed at seven medical schools experienced burnout and 10 percent expressed suicidal ideation. And doctors aren't much better off; a second study in JAMA Internal Medicine of 7,288 physicians showed that almost half had experienced some symptom of burnout.

The public image of doctors hasn't fared well, either. While the popular notion of doctors was once the wise and avuncular Marcus Welby, M.D., more recent portrayals tend toward Dr. Gregory House, a brilliant but annoying know-it-all with a decided God complex.

Salvatore Mangione, an associate professor at Thomas Jefferson University, thinks he knows why. In talks and papers, he has investigated how medical education veered off course and how it can be reinvigorated. ...
...

"We've heard [anecdotally from students] that the [drawing] class was almost like Zen therapy," says Mangione. "The students felt that this helped them see things differently and to feel differently."

Click to read about some efforts to bring a different way of seeing into the profession. Would some of these practices be helpful for law students? Lawyers? If so, how might similar measures be used with law students? Lawyers? Where are aligned practices already being used by law students? Lawyers?