It is being taught either way
Children learn what money means from what they see. They see which decisions cause tension and they take note of who is deferred to. They see whether the business is spoken about with pride or with resentment.
By the time a family sits down to explain the shareholding, the attitudes are already set. The education has happened; it was simply unplanned.
Start before it matters
The best moment to begin is when the stakes are low. A twelve-year-old can understand that the family owns a company and that owning it comes with obligations. A twenty-eight-year-old being told the same thing for the first time, alongside a valuation, will hear something else entirely.
Early education has a second benefit that families overlook. It gives the next generation time to decide they do not want it, at an age where that answer costs nothing.
What to cover, by stage
Childhood.
Where the family's wealth came from. What the business does and who works there. Nothing about amounts.
Teenage years.
The difference between owning and working. That the family's position was built and can be lost. First exposure to the idea that ownership is a job.
Twenties.
Financial literacy in earnest. This means reading accounts, understanding what a dividend is and what it costs the business to pay one. Work experience outside the family firm, which is the single most useful thing you can insist upon.
Thirties.
Governance. Board observation. Real responsibility somewhere, with the possibility of failing at it.
The ones who will not join the business
Most of the next generation will not run the company. However, they will still own part of it, and they will still vote.
An owner who does not understand the business is a risk, and usually an unhappy one. Teaching an heir to be a good shareholder is different work from teaching them to be an executive, and it is more often needed. A family that only educates its future chief executive has educated one person and left the rest to guess.
Families often wait for the children to show interest. Interest, however, follows understanding, not the reverse. A nineteen-year-old who finds the business dull has usually never been shown anything about it except a balance sheet produced at a family gathering.
We build education plans for families, staged by age and by responsibility.
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