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Every family passes down two inheritances. Only one is documented.
I work alongside families, family offices and their advisers to facilitate the important conversations about what people want
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FAMILY ADVISORY
Family client
Hong Kong · LondonWhat a structure chart never shows
Your advisers have done their work well. The structures are sound. And still, what is most likely to undo generations of work appears on no document.
It's the founder who has handed over the title but not the decisions. The heir who said yes to the business at 22 and has been quietly regretting it ever since. The spouse who married in and has never been sure where they stand.
These conversations rarely happen around the boardroom table, or the dinner table. Yet what goes unsaid shapes a family's future as much as any legal or financial decision.
What gets handed down
Most of those stories were useful once. Some still are. Others have hardened into roles no one chose and silences no one remembers starting.
There is a Chinese saying: 富不过三代. Wealth does not last beyond three generations. Families seldom lose it to markets. They lose it to stories no one questioned, and to conversations postponed until the reading of the will.
My work is to bring those stories into the open, so the family can decide together what is load-bearing and what is only inherited habit. The next generation inherits what made the family strong, and not what made it difficult.
How the work unfolds
Lawyers, private banks and family offices build the structures for succession and governance. Those structures depend on people being willing to say what they actually want. My work creates the conditions for that.
A. Recognition
I speak privately with each family member first. Everyone is heard before anyone is in the same room, and I understand the history, the loyalties and the fault lines before the family sits down together.
B. Reckoning
I bring the family together for the conversations that might otherwise be avoided. I ask the questions others are reluctant to raise, and make room for disagreement without letting it derail the discussion.
C. Redesign
The family decides what to carry forward. When the professional advisers come to draft, they work from what the family actually wants, rather than what everyone has politely agreed to.
Justine helped to bridge the gap between my Chinese parents and the international world that I am growing up in.
Rising generation
Hong Kong · BostonWhen families call
A founder
preparing to step back, but not yet ready to let go of the decisions.
A rising generation
questioning whether it wants a role in the family business.
Siblings or cousins
with different visions for the same assets.
A sale, death
or diagnosis that forces conversations the family has never had.
A family member
who has stepped away, or a rift that has never healed.
A family
spread across countries, cultures and tax residencies.
Spouses and
in-laws uncertain about their place in family decisions.
A governance or
or succession process that has stalled because the difficult conversations haven't happened.
Why work with me?
I've spent three decades living and working across Asia, including a decade in Japan and many years raising my family in Hong Kong. I speak multiple languages, and I understand how a family's heritage shapes the way it makes decisions.
My background combines an MBA with postgraduate qualifications in counselling and systemic family therapy. I'm a registered Clinical Counsellor (PACFA Level 4).
I understand the commercial realities that shape family decisions. I don't manage assets, and I don't sell financial products. My role is independent, with the family's relationships and long-term interests at the centre of every conversation.
What families say
“Justine has been with us for so many years, watching our children grow.
She's someone who gives real guidance on raising children and navigating succession planning… Justine is that reliable bridge for us.”
“All solutions and guidance come with a deep understanding of our backgrounds, our needs and every family’s independent way of functioning and its unique influences…
As a Family Adviser, she has a great sense of navigating through different cultures and their influences on our way of thinking.”
“Our sessions were open and relaxed. There was nothing to fear from discussing our concerns
As a family, and individually, we could speak honestly about what was affecting us.”
For advisers and family offices
When a governance or succession process stalls, the obstacle is rarely technical. It is almost always the family.
I work alongside lawyers, private banks and family offices to create the psychological safety a family needs to engage honestly with the process. I open the conversations. You draft from what they produce.
I also speak at private client events on succession, the rising generation, and what families pass down beyond wealth.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. That is the work of your lawyers and advisers. I lead the conversations that give them something real to draft.
Yes. Individual conversations are confidential, and nothing you tell me privately is shared with other family members without your agreement. The usual professional limits apply, and I explain them at the outset.
No. My training in systemic family therapy shapes how I listen, but this is advisory work. The family isn't unwell. It is making decisions that will outlast everyone in the room.
That depends on the family. Often it's the founding generation and their children. Sometimes it includes spouses, in-laws and cousins. We decide together who needs to be in the room, and when.
Most run for at least six months. Some families keep me on as an ongoing adviser as decisions unfold over the years.
I'm based between Melbourne and Hong Kong, and work with families across Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia and internationally, in person and online.
Begin a confidential conversation
Every family has its own history, expectations and ways of making decisions. I take the time to understand yours before suggesting how I can help.
All enquiries are confidential. I'm happy to sign a non-disclosure agreement before an initial discussion, and a detailed overview of my approach is available on request.