FAMILY MISSION STATEMENTS

A growing number of families are creating mission statements to define their values and goals, reports The New York Times. The family mission statements seem especially popular among wealthy families, who use them to agree on charitable-giving priorities and determine who may join the family foundation or inherit money. Lee Hausner, of IFF Advisors, in Irvine, Calif., charges about $6,000 a day to help families write their statements. He cited an example of how crafting a mission statement helped one family settle a question of whether to support Jewish charities or charities of other religions as well.