Advisor found family-dynamics insights in studies of ancient Rome

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Since 2014, the Family Enterprise Advisor designation has been a key credential among professionals who work with wealthy people and their families. We decided to ask advisors who have earned the designation to tell us what it has brought to their practice and how it has influenced their careers.

As the Toronto-based director of Family Enterprise Services with PwC Canada, Hadielia Yassiri says her interest in family dynamics dates back to her undergraduate years studying classics at the University of Toronto.

“I was really fascinated by how the Roman system of choosing an emperor worked really well when the candidates were not related, but when they chose someone’s son, they always ended up with a Caligula or a Nero,” she says. Similarly, historians say edicts compelling children to follow in their family businesses likely contributed to the decline of Rome.

“My entire course of study was filled with examples of good and bad family systems. I think that carried into my work,” Yassiri says.

Today, her superpowers are the technical skills she uses in family-business governance and continuity planning, combined with the qualities of an impartial listener, collaborator and consensus-builder.

A lawyer by training – she holds a master’s in tax law from Osgoode Hall in Toronto – she has focused increasingly on advising high-net-worth families. Before she joined PwC, she served as head of strategic wealth planning with the family office Forthlane Partners and as legal counsel with the cross-border law firm Altro LLP. She also spent six years in private banking with RBC Wealth Management.

Yassiri says she had been aware of the Family Enterprise Advisor (FEA) designation for more than a decade before she enrolled in the program about four years ago in Toronto.

Why did you seek the FEA designation?

I realized there’s something more out there that could use the totality of my skills. The course is a lot more technical than what people think. People often think it’s soft skills – are you a social worker or a psychologist? – but actually it’s extremely rigorous. The learnings about governance are incredibly rigorous.

Did the FEA change your approach to your field?

It gave me a brand-new holistic way of thinking. It allowed me to see that as a subject-matter expert, I can better understand the tax processes, the systems and the environment in which I work and these families operate and live. This is in contrast to working solely as a specialist; it allows me to start at a much earlier and more holistic point in the family business.

What ideas have particularly stayed with you?

There are many takeaways. One is the importance of process versus content. The process goes in all directions: between me and the family members, and between and among the family members. It begins with professionalizing how we communicate with one another and understanding that when we sit around the table, each family member has a voice.

Can you describe this in more detail?

The way we look at the family enterprise system is by three separate but interconnected circles: family dynamics, ownership and the business itself. Very rarely do you have family members existing in all three circles. You have to work on all three systems, and you have to be strategic with the family system.

Families come to us for four reasons: conflict, issues of communication, lack of clarity in roles and responsibilities, and continuity or succession. All of those elements happen in the family system.

If there are no policies in the business, no board of directors, it creates friction between the family members. If the brother is working in the business and the sister is concentrating on looking after her family, and they have business conversations around the dinner table, it creates friction. Or if they don’t get along personally, then that vacuum of communication, that dysfunction, can spill over into the other two systems.

Any other thoughts about the FEA designation?

Let’s contextualize. In Canada, more than $1 trillion in wealth will be transferred in the next few years [according to the Estate Planning Council of Canada]. The designation will be a highly desirable and necessary tool, because there will be an explosion of family offices as wealth is transferred.

Family organizations need advisors with professional designations to provide ongoing support as the founding generations retire or pass.

Responses have been lightly edited for clarity and length.

Administered by Family Enterprise Canada, the FEA (Family Enterprise Advisor) designation is increasingly recognized across the country. It identifies advisors with expertise in family business and significant technical knowledge in a related field. The program, which costs $16,995 plus tax, consists of six modules and a capstone team project. More than 450 professionals have achieved the designation.

Other FEAs profiled in this series

• Steve Ivacko, a partner with MNP’s Family Office Services in Vancouver, who enjoys working collaboratively with other professionals and being able to leave ego at the door.
• Anne Evamy, a business-transition advisor who works with families and business owners through her advisory firm, Junction Point Inc., based in Calgary.
• Chris Reichert, president of Reichert Family Enterprise Advisors Inc. in Winnipeg, who is a family-meeting facilitator specializing in the “soft side” of succession and continuity planning.
• Krista Han, managing partner for New Brunswick with Grant Thornton LLP, who manages a province-wide team of professionals who advise family businesses.
• Barb Schimnowsky, a specialist in executive search in Vancouver who today sets up CEOs for success in family businesses.

More from Canadian Family Offices:

• A new insurance tool to pass down wealth through generations
• ‘Athletes are different than other wealthy people’
• Business transitions: Thoughts on replacing the irreplaceable executive
• Third-gen Cumbrae’s founder on business and his sons’ roles

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