Family, as a value, is certainly not prized and protected by many law offices. Instead, a vast majority of today’s lawyers place far greater value on the individual self and that individual’s own self-interest apart from any kinship, duty, or community. While individual freedom is fundamental to our legal system, we believe that it is possible to take a more holistic view than focusing only on atomized individuals. Family life over the last decades has been increasingly subject to diminishing connection, meaning, and community. This is part of what has led to divorce rates (and single parent homes) rising to the level of 53% by 1979. This breakdown of the security and stability of the family has certainly led to increased work and increased attorney fees for lawyers. In a culture where, as William J. Doherty has put it, the underlying principle of family is “Ask not what you can do for your family; ask what your family can do for you” the likelihood of families dissolving by mere entropy and lack of intentional commitment is all too common. And, when family ties and connections are dissolved, family wealth is diminished and a family’s assets do not build or grow. Great wealth (financial, human, intellectual, spiritual) is thereby lost.
Here, at Penner & Purves, we are proud to offer high quality personal service to individuals every single day. But we also have no reason to hide the fact that we view Family to be a good in itself. Human beings are, by nature, relational. Children flourish when raised with stability, support, and conscious attention by multiple family members of multiple generations. Families are able to preserve and build their wealth by strengthening and cultivating their connections with each other, rather than neglecting their relationships and communal obligations. This is something far different than an individual’s being reduced to his or her role in the workforce. As Mary Ann Glendon has explained, something is wrong when our laws and legal system are framed as though human beings, families, and their relationships exist to serve the economy or the state, and not the other way around.
Our Firm focuses on assisting families in establishing stability and security for their futures and their estate plans. We love being able to assist any couple in creating a plan that is likely to preserve financial security for the entire family and to avoid and diminish future family conflict. From the perspective of our Firm, every family is always, by definition, at least two or more individuals. Any decision made by a family is, therefore, a “joint” decision. For any decision to be truly a joint decision, it needs to be made through a deliberate process. Deliberative process, when done well, increases the odds of good decision making – and good legal and financial decision making is an advantage that any family should avail itself of.
James E. Hughes Jr., in his book Family Wealth, wrote: “In all cultures wealth preservation has meant, and continues to mean today, the accumulation of wealth measured as financial capital. Very few families have understood that their wealth consists of three forms of capital: human, intellectual, and financial. Even fewer families have understood that without active stewardship of their human and intellectual capital they cannot preserve their financial capital.” We are dedicated to assisting families in conducting that deliberative process and active stewardship which leads to preserving a family’s common good.