ASSOCIATES
Family Legacies' Associates are leaders in their respective fields including; Financial Planning, Wealth & Risk Management, Auditing & Business Turnarounds, Corporate & Commercial Law as well as Professional Coaching & Facilitation, combined with Family Business Consulting expertise, to provide our clients with a professional and integrated multi-disciplinary service.
DU TOIT VAN DEN BERG
JEANDRE DU TOIT
LOUIS STROEBEL
DEBBIE MARTIN
Financial Planning, Wealth
& Risk Management
Auditing, Company Structuring
& Business Turnarounds
Corporate & Commercial Law
Professional Coach & Facilitator
LEGACY DESIGN & FAMILY DOCUMENTATION
Transforming family experience into enduring frameworks of purpose, identity, and continuity.
The work of Legacy Design begins where reflection meets structure — taking the values, mission, and vision a family has defined and turning them into tangible frameworks that protect identity, relationships, and enterprise across generations. It bridges the gap between belief and blueprint, ensuring that the family’s story, purpose, and governance remain aligned for generations to come.
ROOTED IN THE DICKINSON FAMILY LEGACY COLLECTION
This work grew out of my own experience creating the Dickinson Family Legacy Collection — a comprehensive body of reflections, letters, and governance documents that capture the values and history of our five-generation family enterprise.
What began as a deeply personal exercise has since evolved into a structured methodology that any family can apply — one that turns history into guidance and experience into enduring design.
The process of writing that collection revealed a universal truth: every business family needs a framework that carries both its story and its structure — not only what the family owns, but who it is, what it stands for, and how it intends to sustain harmony and prosperity.
Through Family Legacies, I now help other business families design their own frameworks — creating documentation that blends personal reflection, governance, and philosophy into one cohesive narrative of continuity.
WHAT THE PROCESS INVOLVES
The Legacy Design process begins with conversation — listening deeply to understand the family’s story, the key relationships that define it, and the transitions it is preparing for. From there, we shape a living framework that reflects both history and aspiration.
Each engagement is entirely bespoke, but may include:
FAMILY PHILOSOPHY & STORYTELLING
Documenting the family’s origin, milestones, and guiding beliefs in written or visual form, capturing the lessons and values that have shaped its journey.
FAMILY CONSTITUTION OR CHARTER
Establishing the principles, structures, and responsibilities that connect the family, ownership, and business systems.
VALUES, MISSION & VISION STATEMENTS
Clarifying identity, purpose, and long-term direction — ensuring that decision-making remains aligned with shared ideals.
LEGACY LETTERS & REFLECTIONS
Creating personal letters from family members — particularly founders or senior generations — that articulate wisdom, gratitude, and guidance.
LETTERS OF WISHES & STEWARDSHIP GUIDANCE
Documenting personal intentions, ethical considerations, and guiding principles that give context to formal estate and trust structures.
FAMILY GOVERNANCE FRAMEWORKS
Defining councils, committees, or roles that maintain accountability and communication across generations.
Each document is crafted with both emotional intelligence and structural precision — personal enough to inspire, practical enough to guide.
LETTERS OF WISHES
A Letter of Wishes is a personal document that accompanies formal estate or trust structures.
While not legally binding, it carries significant moral and emotional weight — offering trustees, executors, and family members insight into the intentions and values behind your decisions.
Many families assume that having a will and a trust is enough to protect both wealth and family unity.
Yet legal structures alone cannot convey the reasoning, empathy, or vision that keeps relationships intact.
A well-articulated Letter of Wishes bridges that gap — ensuring heirs understand not just the allocation of assets, but the heart and philosophy behind them.
These letters explain the why behind the what — the reasoning, principles, and hopes that shaped your planning.
They can provide guidance on how to interpret discretionary decisions, encourage certain uses of inherited wealth, or convey reflections you want your family to remember.
Unlike formal legal instruments, a Letter of Wishes is written in your own voice.
It can be updated at any time, remains private, and serves as a bridge between technical governance and human understanding.
Within Family Legacies, the preparation of Letters of Wishes forms part of the Legacy Design process — ensuring that the legal, financial, and emotional dimensions of a family’s legacy remain connected and coherent.
Lawyers draft what must happen. A Letter of Wishes explains why it matters.
COLLABORATION WITH TRUSTED ADVISORS
Family Legacies works in partnership with families’ existing legal, fiduciary, and financial advisors.
Our role is to complement — not replace — the work of those professionals by bringing depth, alignment, and clarity to the human side of legacy.
Together, we ensure that a family’s structural, emotional, and philosophical dimensions form a coherent and enduring whole.
WHY LEGACY DESIGN MATTERS
Wealth alone cannot hold a family together.
Without meaning and shared values, inheritance can divide rather than unite. Legacy Design ensures that each generation inherits not only assets, but the principles and context to steward them wisely.
It also helps families avoid one of the most common risks in succession — assuming that the next generation automatically understands “how things are done.”
By recording philosophy, purpose, and expectations in clear, human language, a family creates a compass that endures long after leadership transitions.
This work is particularly valuable during periods of transition, when generational leadership, ownership structures, or family roles are changing.
It brings clarity, continuity, and calm to what can otherwise be a time of uncertainty.
Legacy frameworks are designed to evolve. As families grow and circumstances change, these documents can be revisited and refined — keeping the family’s story alive and relevant across generations.
Legacy frameworks are designed to evolve. As families grow and circumstances change, these documents can be revisited and refined — keeping the family’s story alive and relevant across generations.
THE OUTCOME
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A shared understanding of their purpose and principles
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Clarity about roles, expectations, and governance
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Renewed emotional connection and alignment
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Documentation that guides, protects, and inspires future generations
This is the heart of what Family Legacies stands for — helping families codify not just their structures, but their soul.
Legacy is not what we leave behind. It is what continues to grow because of what we’ve built together.
If your family has reached a point where structure exists but deeper meaning feels missing, Family Legacies can help bring the two together — creating documentation that not only protects what you’ve built, but preserves who you are.