Family enterprises account for 63 per cent of Canada's private-sector firms and generate nearly half of its GDP. Yet the families behind these businesses rarely fail because of a bad investment. They fail because no one built the governance to manage what the investment created. This article explains the Three-Circle Model, the governance structures UHNW Canadian families need, and how a family office coordinates the pieces most advisory teams leave disconnected.

"I grew up in Hamilton, where my father made steel for thirty years. The materials sector is not an abstraction to me. Three structural forces are now competing for what comes out of the ground, and Canadian portfolios are positioned for it whether investors realize it or not."

Daniel Defoe published Robinson Crusoe in 1719. It is widely considered the first great English novel. It has been in print for over 300 years. And while it is usually shelved as an adventure story, it is, at its core, a manual for building something from nothing.