Behavioral and Family Finance
Money decisions don't happen in a spreadsheet — they happen in relationships, family dynamics, and emotional contexts. These articles explore how couples can align on financial goals, how to teach children about money, how family wealth transitions work, and how behavioral patterns around spending and saving shape your financial outcomes.
Values-Based Spending Exercises
Practical exercises to align your spending with what matters most to you, reducing financial stress and improving satisfaction with money decisions.
Therapist vs. Advisor Roles in Money Conflicts
Understanding when money conflicts need a financial advisor, a therapist, or both helps couples and families resolve disputes more effectively.
Money Conversations with Partners
A structured approach to discussing finances with your partner, including budget allocation percentages and conversation frameworks.
Blended Family Financial Planning
How to coordinate finances, protect children from prior relationships, and build financial unity in blended families with remarriage and stepchildren.
Elder Fraud Prevention and Monitoring
How to recognize common elder fraud schemes, implement account monitoring systems, and protect aging family members from financial exploitation.
Managing Financial Support for Adult Children
How to provide financial assistance to adult children while protecting your retirement security and setting appropriate boundaries.
Glossary: Family Finance Terms
Essential definitions for 28 family finance terms covering money communication, intergenerational planning, and family business concepts.
Caregiving Responsibilities and Budgets
How to plan for and manage the financial costs of caregiving, from in-home support to nursing home care, while protecting your own retirement savings.
Teaching Kids About Money at Different Ages
Age-specific strategies for teaching children about money, from basic coin recognition at age 5 to investment concepts at age 17.
Integrating ESG or Faith-Based Values
How to align investment portfolios with environmental, social, and religious values while understanding screening approaches, fund options, and performance tradeoffs.
Custodial Accounts and Financial Education
UGMA and UTMA custodial account rules, kiddie tax thresholds, and how to use custodial accounts as teaching tools for children.
Setting Allowances and Chore Systems
Evidence-based approaches to setting child allowances, including sample amounts by age and region, and effective chore-payment structures.
Handling Sudden Wealth Events
A structured approach to managing inheritance, lottery winnings, IPO proceeds, and other sudden wealth events without making costly mistakes in the critical first months.
Digital Tools for Family Collaboration
Specific budgeting apps, account monitoring services, and secure document sharing platforms help families coordinate finances without confusion or conflict.
Documenting Family Legacy Stories
Structured interview frameworks and storage solutions help families preserve financial wisdom, values, and cautionary lessons across generations.
Family Governance and Mission Statements
How to create formal family governance structures and mission statements that align multiple generations around shared financial values and decision-making processes.
Family Financial Meetings Agenda
Most families talk about money only when something goes wrong — a surprise bill, an overdraft notification, a tense argument about who spent what. The result: financial conversations become synonymous with conflict, decisions get made reactively instead of strategically, and children grow up asso...
Succession Planning for Family Businesses
Family businesses represent roughly 90% of all U.S. businesses and generate 64% of GDP, yet only 30% survive to the second generation and 12% to the third (Family Business Alliance, 2023). The failure rate isn't driven by bad products or weak markets — it's driven by no written succession plan (6...
Financial Planning for Special Needs Families
Comprehensive guide to ABLE accounts, Special Needs Trusts, and benefit preservation strategies that protect SSI/SSDI eligibility while building financial security for individuals with disabilities.
Prenuptial Agreements and Communication
How to approach prenuptial agreement conversations constructively, understand state law variations, and ensure enforceability through proper timing and full disclosure.