Der richtige Umgang mit dem Vermögen

In his lecture „The Right Way to Manage Wealth“ (2023), which took place as part of the 38th WIFU host meeting, Prof. Dr Tom Rüsen highlights the significance of wealth in entrepreneurial families and why its management requires an increasingly strategic approach. The focus is on observations drawn from working with entrepreneurial families, as well as typical issues surrounding distributions, secondary assets, diversification and responsibility.

The presentation shows that wealth in entrepreneurial families can be understood in very different ways: as liability capital tied up in the business, as shared family wealth, or as the private wealth of individual shareholders. This distinction is crucial because each form of wealth is associated with different expectations, rights, obligations and emotional dynamics.

Prof. Dr Tom Rüsen makes it clear that the management of wealth often remains a taboo subject – particularly between generations. This makes it all the more important to develop a shared approach as part of a family strategy and family constitution: What does trusteeship mean? What distribution approach suits the family? And how can wealth be structured in such a way that it supports cohesion, sustainability and responsible entrepreneurship?