In this webinar replay, Scott Weaver, JD, Chief Fiduciary Officer of Pathstone, leads a discussion with Nicholas Heuer, JD, LLM, a partner at international law firm Katten, and Steve Sokić, Chairman of Jersey-based Crestbridge Family Office Services. Together they offer complementary perspectives on what to know before deploying capital abroad:

• Legal system of the foreign jurisdiction
• Local rights and duties accompanying asset ownership
• System and rate of taxation
• Regulatory and administrative requirements
• Impact on U.S. legal, tax, or regulatory filings

Whether you’re thinking about acquiring assets, forming entities, making gifts, or establishing residency or citizenship abroad, this dialogue will offer critical insights and case studies to help inform your planning. For more background, read our recent article on this topic.

What does “success” really mean for your family? And how do you build toward it—together?

In our webinar, Defining Family Success: Crafting a Vision for Multigenerational Growth and Thriving, Pathstone’s Jim Coutré and Hannah Kanstroom invited families to pause, reflect, and co-create a shared vision of success. Whether you’re just beginning to think about legacy planning or refining your family’s long-term strategy, this conversation offered powerful tools and perspectives to help families move forward with intention.

If you missed the live session, you can watch the full recording here.

Three Takeaways to Remember:

1. There’s no one right way to do this—just that doing it matters.
   Every family is unique. Communication styles, values, and cultures differ, which means your process will too. The key is to engage in the work. Simply articulating your family’s purpose and vision brings clarity, alignment, and direction.
2. Co-creation is where the magic happens.
   This isn’t about one person writing a statement and sharing it top-down. Vision-setting is most powerful when each family member’s voice is included. A shared vision becomes a container for individual dreams—and it’s in that space where connection deepens.
3. Vision is only meaningful when it leads to action.
   Once you have your vision, ask: how do we live this out? In moments of uncertainty, your shared purpose becomes your guide. It shapes how you invest, how you make decisions, and how you show up for each other.

Highlights from the Conversation:

• Meeting the moment. Taking time to pause and reflect—especially during transitions—helps families regain a sense of control, reduce fear, and increase agency.
• Why vision matters. Without a shared purpose, wealth alone can lead to secrecy and mistrust. A well-articulated vision supports emotional safety, transparency, and honest dialogue.
• Success, redefined. It’s not about rigid rules or control. It’s about clarifying what matters most and creating space to explore what success really looks like for your family.
• From silence to conversation. Families tend to fill in the blanks when there’s no open communication. Creating a culture of dialogue helps prevent misunderstandings and builds lasting trust.
• Story spotlight. Jim shared how a patriarch initially planned to divide assets equally—but after witnessing the joy and connection at a multigenerational family event, he realized the greater goal was togetherness, not separation. That shift sparked a new, shared family vision rooted in love, support, and connection.

Tactics for Getting Started:

There’s no set playbook, but here are some guiding steps shared during the session:

1. Start the conversation. Whether it’s at the dinner table or in a more structured setting, find ways to ask open-ended questions. Give space to explore the “why” behind your family’s goals.
2. Build a shared narrative. Reflect on your family’s successes, challenges, and hopes. Capture stories, support shared causes, and translate values into tangible actions—like mentoring programs or meaningful traditions.
3. Write it down. Make your vision part of daily life. It’s not just about words on paper—it’s about creating guiding principles (e.g., “We listen before we respond”) that are lived and practiced.
4. Practice and prepare. Intergenerational communication takes work. Consider coaching, workshops, or peer group engagements to help everyone grow into the process.
5. Revisit and adapt. Revisit your vision regularly. Has something changed? Does it still reflect who you are and where you’re going? Reflect and adapt—together.

A Few Audience Questions We Loved:

Q: When should we start involving the next generation?
As early as possible. Kids want to feel important and have opinions. Starting young fosters a culture of collaboration and inclusion.

Q: What if the conversation doesn’t go well?
Conflict can feel tough, but working through it is what creates stronger understanding. It takes time, practice, and sometimes outside support—but it’s worth it.

Q: How often should we meet as a family to do this work?
More is better, especially at the beginning. Consider a big annual meeting, plus periodic check-ins. Just be mindful—if it starts to feel like a chore, scale back. The goal is meaningful engagement, not burnout.

Q: We’ve documented our mission and values—but now our kids are growing up. What’s next?
Revisit the vision with them. You can share the original framework and invite them to build on it. Ownership is key—let the next generation shape the path forward.

Want to continue the conversation on multigenerational growth?

We’d love to hear from you! Contact us to get connected with our Wealth Planning team and start a conversation about your family’s goals and vision for the future.

Dive into what “success” truly means for families, and how intentionally articulating that vision can support family alignment and thriving. This webinar explores how to co-create a family-centered vision that moves towards achieving shared priorities and goals in an attainable way. Jim Coutré, Managing Director leading Pathstone’s Wealth Planning Group, and Hannah Kanstroom, Director of Family Advisory, discuss how families can take a more intentional approach to investing in their family’s legacy capital. During the session, we dive into:

• Making the case for the value of articulating purpose of wealth and vision of success
• Tactically walking through how to co-create your family’s unique vision and priorities
• Offering practical steps for how to use that vision to make progress towards your goals

Whether you’re just beginning to think about this concept or refining your family’s long-term strategy, this session is designed to support the articulation and implementation of that vision to support multigenerational growth.

Earlier this month, the announcement of unexpectedly high tariffs triggered market declines and renewed investor questions about the outlook for the U.S. economy. To explore these themes, Pathstone recently hosted a private client event featuring senior leaders and a policy strategist known for his expertise at the intersection of financial markets and government action. While the full conversation remains exclusive to Pathstone clients, we’re sharing below a few key themes from the discussion that can help contextualize the shifting trade landscape and the broader implications for portfolio positioning.

The following summary is a synthesis of the discussion and market observations and is not a direct transcript or attribution of any individual speaker.

Tactical Allocation Takeaways

Increased downside risk. U.S. trade and tariff policies have significantly altered the path of the global economy since the start of the year, with sentiment among both consumers and businesses shifting in response. As a result, we believe the base case scenario for 2025 is more modest and the risk of a downside scenario has increased. At a minimum, we can see valuations for U.S. large cap equities facing pressure as U.S. “exceptionalism” is called into question, uncertainty over tariff policy leads to caution, and potential for higher inflation/interest rates all weigh on price-to-earnings multiples.

Tactical equity adjustments. Policy uncertainty leads us to have a bi-modal view of potential developments from here. While we may put a lower probability on full-blown recession than some investment strategy teams, we are adjusting to the new reality of increased risk to the downside for equity assets. In response, we are reducing the tactical exposures in our Growth allocation to match the approximate reduction caused by recent performance. To be clear, we are not recommending outright sales of equities — we’re saying that prices are not attractive enough to rebalance into equities given current policy uncertainty.

Tactical fixed income adjustments. In recognition of the greater uncertainty in markets today and the back-up in interest rates in investment-grade bonds, we are recommending a modest shift from Credit Risk Alternatives, which may have greater sensitivity to equity markets, to Short-Duration/Cash for greater liquidity and stability.

We all expect ups and downs in asset values when investing over the long term, and the latest fluctuations resulting from tariff announcements are following this course. However, while no one wants to see their assets decline in value, temporary downturns can create wealth planning opportunities. In this note, Pathstone’s Wealth Planning Group briefly outlines some ideas that may provide a silver lining to the current market disruptions, depending on your goals and circumstances. We also highlight the importance of engaging professional guidance given potential tax considerations.

Many of the families we work with consider acquiring foreign assets at some point in their lives. Circumstances and motivations may vary — a vacation home, a foreign investment opportunity, the cross-border expansion of an operating business, or a sense of security from jurisdictional diversification. However, cross-border wealth ownership creates complexity in the form of exposure both to the laws of a foreign country and to the U.S. cross-border reporting and tax regime.

In Pathstone’s experience helping clients navigate these complex issues, we have found that proactive planning is essential in cross-border matters – “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” given the magnitude of potential consequences. In this note, we outline some of the key issues to consider before deploying capital in a foreign jurisdiction, whether acquiring assets, forming entities, making gifts, or establishing residency or citizenship abroad. We also highlight the importance of engaging expert tax and legal guidance well before any business or financial engagement in a foreign country.

Markets continue to navigate heightened uncertainty, especially around tariff policies and their potential impact on both inflation and growth. This has triggered further volatility and a larger pullback in the U.S. equity market. As of March 13, the S&P 500 had experienced a 10% decline from its prior high on February 19, with selling pressure concentrated in growth stocks (a segment of the market we had previously pointed out as being expensive on a valuation basis). In contrast, markets outside the U.S. have had a stronger start to the year, with both developed non-U.S. and emerging market indices climbing year-to-date. At times like this, it’s important to remember that the S&P 500 has averaged annual intra-year drawdowns of 10.5% since 2000. While drawdowns never feel good, it is normal for markets to go through repricing periods when uncertainty around the economic outlook is heightened.