Family Business Consulting based in Kansas City, MO.
Serving Clients Nationwide.
“The more you know yourself, the more patience you have for what you see in others.”
- Erik Erikson
Disclaimer: Family Business Consulting is not Therapy. For more information, please refer to the FAQs at the bottom of this page.
Building and Managing a Family Business Can Take a Toll
Owning or working within a family business is more than a career—it’s a legacy. But that legacy often comes with complex emotional challenges. The overlapping systems of family and business can bring up conflict, pressure, and confusion, particularly around key decisions like succession, governance, and estate planning.
You may be facing:
Emotionally charged decisions about transferring responsibility or wealth
Intractable sibling conflict or relational breakdowns
Disagreements about next-generation involvement, vision, or values
Questions about whether it's time for a liquidity event or an exit strategy
These issues aren't just logistical—they're deeply personal. Family Business Consulting can provide mediation and conflict management, which are often necessary tools to navigate emotional terrain and move forward with clarity and consensus.
Managing Conflict Around Succession and Estate Planning
Perhaps your parents built the business and now face retirement. Or you’re a parent trying to determine how to fairly distribute your estate or transition leadership to the next generation. These decisions, if not carefully managed, can lead to major family rifts.
Who will run the business? Who manages the estate? How do you gift children with differing needs? How do you avoid unintentionally creating conflict or resentment?
I work with families to resolve these difficult questions before they reach your estate attorneys and financial advisors. With thoughtful mediation, you can reach emotionally sound and strategically smart solutions.
Working Together as a Family—Not Just Business Partners
The emotional and interpersonal aspects of running a family business can be just as important—and volatile—as the financial ones. Without the proper tools, family conflict can become unmanageable, threatening not only the business but also the health of relationships.
As a family business consultant, I help you:
Mediate emotional conversations about power, responsibility, and legacy
Manage longstanding conflicts and interpersonal breakdowns
Develop shared governance structures and family constitutions
Facilitate family meetings that move from tension to collaboration
Using proven conflict management and relationship mediation strategies, I create a space where every voice can be heard and difficult issues can be addressed constructively.
Protect Your Legacy with Family Business Consulting
A multi-generational business or estate doesn’t succeed on spreadsheets alone. Emotions, loyalties, fears, and hopes all factor in. It’s essential to work with someone who can support the emotional process while keeping the business goals in focus.
I help families:
Prepare for estate transitions
Navigate emotionally sensitive succession planning
Resolve intergenerational misunderstandings
Reduce legal and emotional costs by addressing conflict early
With the right guidance, you can avoid costly missteps and create a sustainable plan that reflects your values and respects every stakeholder involved.
I Get It—Because I’ve Been There
I’m Gary Wolf. I’ve spent over 25 years working in and with family businesses. With a background in wealth management, therapy, and conflict mediation, I bring a unique and compassionate approach to helping families navigate these critical moments.
I know the stakes are high. I’ve lived them. And I’m here to help you move forward—together.
The Approach and Tools I Use For Family Business Consulting
My approach to consulting is collaborative, structured, and deeply rooted in real-world application. I partner with clients to surface core challenges, make sense of complexity, and co-create solutions that are both practical and sustainable. Each engagement is guided by a clear process, designed to uncover patterns, clarify priorities, and build alignment across stakeholders. Rather than offering quick fixes, I provide tools and frameworks that strengthen long-term capacity for thoughtful decision-making, healthy communication, and purposeful action.
Clients receive curated assessments, tools, and skills tailored to their needs and goals, offering a road map through the program, including:
Assessment Tools – Designed to explore personal narratives, beliefs about money, personality traits, and communication styles.
Conflict Resolution Worksheets – Provide structured frameworks to understand sources of disagreement and guide productive, solution-focused conversations.
Values Clarification Exercises – Help individuals and groups align decisions with core personal and professional values.
Communication Toolkit – Offers strategies to reduce personalization in conflict and support more effective, respectful dialogue.
Family Constitutions – to help outline shared values, decision-making rules, and roles at the intersections of family, business, and ownership.
Family Business Consulting Can Help You:
Prevent costly family fallouts
Make sound decisions with emotional clarity
Create fair and future-focused estate and succession plans
Preserve your family’s relationships, business, and legacy
My office is based in Kansas City, MO, near the state line—convenient to both Johnson County and downtown. I also regularly provide virtual consulting to clients across the United States. Whether we work together in person or online, confidentiality and professionalism are guaranteed.
Ready to Move Forward with Family Business Consulting?
Family Business Consulting in Kansas City, MO, and virtually anywhere in the U.S., can help you establish a strong connection between money and relationships. With the help of Mental Wealth Counseling & Consulting, you can avoid allowing money to become a source of conflict and family stress. By addressing these issues together, couples and families can find long-lasting solutions. If you're ready to start working on building a healthier and stronger relationship with both your family and your finances:
Learn More About Me and My Services
Embark on your path to Mental Wealth with Family Business Consulting!
Family Business Consulting FAQs
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No. Consulting is not therapy. Consulting is typically issue-specific and goal-oriented, focusing on concrete problem-solving, education, and strategic decision-making. While I draw from my background as a therapist, consulting is not a mental health service and does not involve diagnosis or treatment of psychological conditions.
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Both coaching and consulting are collaborative, non-clinical services that support growth and problem-solving—but they differ in scope and focus.
Consulting is typically system-oriented and issue-specific, often involving mediation, facilitation, or conflict management in a family or organizational setting.
Coaching is more introspective and individual, focused on leadership development, emotional insight, and personal alignment.Put simply: consulting addresses systems; coaching explores the self.
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My Family Business Consulting service is available to any adults and families who work in or own a business in the U.S. Meetings are offered virtually, via a confidential video-conferencing platform, or in person at my Kansas City, MO location.
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If you are interested in therapy services, please visit my other specialty pages to learn more. I offer Therapy for Men, Financial Therapy, and Couples and Family Financial Therapy. To work with me and receive therapy, you must be located in Kansas, Missouri, or New York.
For more information or to set up a free 15-minute consultation call, please contact me.
