Becketts is, itself, a second-generation family business. That fact shapes far more of how we work than clients might realise. When we sit down with a family that is thinking about how to pass wealth, a business, or simply a set of values down to the next generation, we are not observing from the outside. We have lived through many of the same conversations ourselves – the ones about timing, about trust, and about how much responsibility a younger generation is really ready to carry.
That perspective has given us a front-row seat to a wide range of families over the years. We have seen succession handled with real care and foresight, and we have seen it handled less well – often through no fault of anyone involved, simply because nobody quite knew where to start. What follows are some of the patterns we have come to recognise, and the role we believe a trusted adviser should play in helping families navigate them.
The Balance Between Educating and Overwhelming
Of all the lessons we have taken from our own experience and from the families we work with, one stands out above the rest: getting the balance right between preparing the next generation and protecting them from too much, too soon.
Every family we speak with wants their children and grandchildren to be ready. Ready to understand the value of what has been built, ready to make sound decisions, and ready to carry a business or a family’s wealth forward with the same care it was created with. That readiness rarely arrives all at once. It is built gradually, through small moments of exposure and responsibility, rather than through a single conversation or a single document.
We have seen families get this right by introducing financial concepts early, but in proportion to age and maturity – involving a young adult in a conversation about investment principles long before involving them in decisions about inheritance tax or business exit planning. We have also seen the opposite: wealth and responsibility handed over abruptly, often at a moment of bereavement or ill health, when there was little time to prepare and even less appetite to learn. The families who navigate this best tend to treat preparation as a process that runs over years, not a single event that happens once.
There is no fixed formula for how much to share and when. What works for one family may feel wrong for another, and what worked for the generation before may not suit the generation coming through now. This is precisely why the conversation needs a steady, experienced hand — someone who has seen enough families work through this to help judge the pace, without pushing any family faster or slower than feels right for them.
Why This Matters More Than the Numbers
It would be easy to think of family wealth planning purely in terms of structures – trusts, gifting strategies, tax reliefs, and the technical mechanics of a smooth transfer. Those elements matter, and Becketts brings genuine technical depth to them. But the families who come through this process most successfully are rarely the ones who simply got the paperwork right. They are the ones who also got the human side right: the conversations, the shared understanding, and the sense that the next generation was brought along rather than simply handed a set of instructions.
Wealth transferred without preparation has a habit of causing friction, even when the legal and financial architecture behind it is sound. We have seen inheritances create distance between siblings who were never given the chance to discuss expectations together. We have seen younger family members feel unprepared for decisions they were suddenly required to make, and older generations feel uneasy about a transition they were never quite ready to begin. None of this reflects a failure of technical planning. It reflects a gap in preparation and communication — the part of the process that no spreadsheet can solve on its own.
Our Role as the Trusted Adviser at the Centre
This is where we believe our role becomes most valuable. As a trusted adviser, we are often the one relationship that spans both generations. We can be the centre point that the older generation turns to when they are weighing up how much to share, and when. We can also be the point of access for the younger generation, who may have questions they feel more comfortable asking us than raising directly within the family.
That central position brings a particular kind of responsibility. It means listening carefully to what each generation actually wants, rather than assuming their goals are identical. It means helping coordinate the wider professional team – accountants, tax advisers, and solicitors – so that every decision fits within one coherent, long-term strategy rather than a series of disconnected pieces of advice. And it means being patient enough to let a family’s plans unfold at the right pace for them, even when that pace is slower than a purely technical timeline might suggest.
For families navigating this kind of transition, having one trusted adviser who understands both the financial mechanics and the human dynamics at play can make an enormous difference. It gives the older generation confidence that their wealth, their business, and their values are being passed on thoughtfully. It gives the next generation a steady, informed point of contact as they grow into new responsibilities. And it gives the whole family a sense that the process is being guided by someone who has genuinely walked this path before – not just professionally, but personally.
A Process, Not a Moment
If there is one thing we would want every family to take from this, it is that preparing the next generation is a process built over time, not a single decision made at a single moment. The families who do this well tend to start earlier than they think they need to, involve the right people at the right stages, and lean on an adviser who can help them judge that balance as it evolves.
As a second-generation family business ourselves, we understand what is at stake in getting this right – and we understand, just as importantly, what it feels like to get it wrong. That understanding shapes every conversation we have with the families who trust us to help guide theirs.
