Endorsements

Wealth and Families is the best book about the subject that I have read in a long time. Howard Stevenson’s wisdom about wealth is informed by experience and infused with humility. In the end, Wealth and Families isn’t so much a book about getting and staying rich (though it will certainly help readers do that). It’s a book about living a good and rewarding life.”

  • Richard Bradley, Editor-in-Chief, Worth

“Howard Stevenson has managed to do something no one has managed to do before: produce a life manual for families with even a moderate level of wealth. Wealth and Families illustrates that building and managing a family network is a multi-dimensional journey – a journey that never ends – with each decision defining future options in areas from finances to family relations. It is a must read for any family with assets.”

  • Daniel Muzyka, President and CEO of the Conference Board of Canada, RBC Financial Group Professor of Entrepreneurship, University of British Columbia

“The discussion of issues around money and one’s children is tempting for too many of us to delay, defer, and delay again. Howard’s wise book will prod and catalyze that tough but essential discussion. He has a remarkable talent for teaching without being preachy.”

  • James M. Stone, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Plymouth Rock Assurance

“This unique and exceptional memoir is a tutorial on family capital – both financial and human. Rich with juicy, instructive stories, it will hold the interest of any family member. Elder generations will nod in recognition at some of the truths that Howard shares, millennials will find a road map for navigating the choices of becoming… and I intend to share whole portions of the book with every teenager I know.”

  • Joline Godfrey, author of Raising Financially Fit Kids and founder of Independent Means, a financial education services provider

“Wealth and Families is a modern Gospel of Wealth. From a leading business educator who has helped many students learn how to fail their way to success comes a candid, personal, comprehensive story about how to avoid succeeding one’s way to failure…great lessons on the challenging task of being a steward of substantial wealth.”

  • John E. Abele, Founding Chairman, Retired, Boston Scientific Corporation

“Howard Stevenson has always been a great thinker, brimming with new ideas and fresh perspectives. I can’t think of anyone who wouldn’t benefit from a dose of Howard’s accumulated lifetime of wisdom and insight.”

  • Seth A. Klarman, President and CEO, Baupost Group LLC

“Howard Stevenson’s book, Wealth and Families: Lessons from my Life Journey, is a “how to do it” book. Essentially, it describes how he did it, weaving together his experiences in different but related areas such as teaching, investing and philanthropy. It should be part of anyone’s “entrepreneurial studies.” Plus it is fun to read!”

  • C.D. Spangler, Jr., President Emeritus of the University of North Carolina

“I always tell business school students that their goal should be to lead a rich life, not make a lot of money. Howard Stevenson has been generous to share his wisdom and experiences in his latest publication. While this book has valuable insights into investing and accumulating wealth, it will help you achieve the more important goal of living and sustaining a balanced, rewarding life.”

  • David Abrams, Managing Partner of Abrams Capital Management

Howard Stevenson is a wise man. This personal narrative marries decades of real life experience with an academic’s unbiased search for the truth. Enjoy his pithy, pointed writing style and you will be rewarded with new insights on wealth and families and a fun read.”

  • Stuart Lucas, Chairman of Wealth Strategist Partners, fourth-generation heir, and author of Wealth: Grow It and Protect It

“From a small town in Utah to becoming a professor at HBS to co-founding Baupost, one of the nation’s best performing hedge funds, Howard shares his perspectives on investing, wealth and – most importantly – the notion of success. Wealth and Families contains many insightful, often contrarian, observations about how best to manage your wealth and not ruin your family.”

  • Spencer B. Burke, Executive at The St. Louis Trust Company, a multi-family office

“Wealth is what happens when you reach financial escape velocity – when your money works while you sleep.  Wealth is very hard to create and easy to destroy.  And, it can be destructive for individuals and families.  Howard  has written a terrific book, full of wisdom and wit, that serves as a helpful guide for creating, sustaining and sharing wealth in a positive, purposeful way.”

  • William A. Sahlman, Harvard Business School Professor and Senior Associate Dean External Relations

“I greatly enjoyed this book – speed reading it first and then returning to thought-provoking chapters about how to build, manage and pass on wealth. Extrapolating from Howard’s personal journey to the broader topics of wealth and families make it especially interesting and powerful.”

  • Howard Cox, former General Partner of Greylock and former Chairman of the National Venture Capital Association

“Reading Wealth and Families is like having a good talk with a friend about subjects near and dear to your heart. I am giving a copy to each of my children!”

  • Michael O’Connell, Senior Managing Director of M20, a family investment office

“It’s hard to fathom—even once you’ve read it—the compactness of the wisdom and insight Howard Stevenson provides in this short book. His perspective is practical, yet enormously synthetic. Don’t be confused by the direct, “awe-shucks” tone.

The simple folksy-sounding analysis of the complex problem of intergenerational wealth belies Howard’s incorporation and absorption of much more than the magic of mathematically rigorous laws of compounding and diversification, sprinkling in a foundational knowledge of the tax code and the law. It’s that he has, in his own mental frame, incorporated a sense of people’s humanity, their strengths and weaknesses, their goals and actual accomplishments, based on successfully watching, and doing, for all these years.

The wisest teachers have all along been life’s best and most observant students. Howard—and this integrative little book that you and your progeny should share—are just that.”

  • Kenneth A. Froot, Harvard Business School Professor Emeritus