Family Crisis Management

Some families do well in crisis situations and others don’t. If your family is struggling to communicate and to make the tough decisions we can help. We specialize in managing conflict to enable your family to move forward expeditiously. Depending on your situation, we assemble a customized team to help you manage the crisis whether it’s a single mediator to help two family members bury the hatchet or a team of consultants to help transition the family business. Accordingly, our involvement may be managing a family meeting or it may develop into an ongoing collaboration. We will work with you to determine the intervention that best fits your situation.

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Case Study: Planning for the Next Generation

A couple in their seventies came to a Howell Larsen mediator to discuss a major life change - getting divorced. It quickly became apparent to the mediator that their desire to get divorced was really a cry for help. They had a bunch of interrelated family issues that were so emotionally intertwined that no movement seemed possible. The husband was upset because he was unable to write a will or do estate planning while the wife was fighting with two of their kids. The wife focused her anxieties about aging and her relationship with her kids on the couples' joint decision about leaving their large marital home, now mostly empty. The tension was so high that they couldn't decide anything. The mediator successfully unbundled the problems so that the family lawyer, financial planner and CPA could begin to effectively work together to "rationally" plan the family's future.