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Systems Thinking: A Practical Lens for Understanding Enterprising FamiliesSystems Thinking: A Practical Lens for Understanding Enterprising Families

Help clients overcome the disruptions caused by emotional ping pong.

Rebecca A. Meyer, Managing Director of Client Strategy

July 22, 2019

16 Min Read
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As advisors working with families who share assets, we have front row seats to our clients’ complex family relationships. So, when an individual family member sits in front of us explaining the set of circumstances that brought him there, it’s easy to forget that we’re already engaging with his whole family. For most of us, it’s easy to align with the logic of the narrative that the client recounts. What can be less instinctive is to see the bigger picture. That means visualizing all the players (siblings, cousins, children, parents, grandparents and great grandparents) who are integral to the situation, each with his own explanation of what’s going on. It also means anticipating that the current challenge reflects larger issues facing t...

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About the Author

Rebecca A. Meyer

Managing Director of Client Strategy, Pitcairn

Rebecca A. Meyer is Managing Director of Client Strategy at Pitcairn, a recognized global leader in the specialized family office marketplace. Rebecca manages Pitcairn’s planning team. In that capacity, she is responsible for coordinating the development of comprehensive strategies designed to meet long-term goals for multi-generational families. She is accountable for developing client deliverables and customized client education initiatives. Through her work with single family office clients, Rebecca has helped families develop new governance processes and re-evaluate their wealth structures as part of generational transitions. Rebecca was one of the lead architects of Pitcairn’s open architecture investment process. She is a member of Pitcairn’s Investment Policy and Investment Strategy committees. 

Prior to joining Pitcairn in 2006, Rebecca spent over 20 years as an investment professional. Most recently she served in a number of senior roles at SEI Investments, including working with ultra high net worth clients and advisors to those clients and heading up manager due diligence for SEI’s fixed income multi-manager offerings.

Rebecca has a BA, cum laude, in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the University of Maryland. Rebecca completed three years of study in the Special Post Graduate Program at the Bowen Center for the Study of the Family.