FAMILY DECISION FACILITATION
Your family has a choice to make.
Family decisions are never just about assets, logistics, and legalities. They're about writing the next chapter of a shared story. Who built this home, this business, this farm? Who took care of this place? What did they value, and how do those values live in us now?
Every family deserves to make complex choices with honesty, care, clarity, and respect. We help families make decisions that build the future while honoring the past..
A decision keeps getting put off: the business, the land, the cabin, the care of a parent.
Everyone has a perspective, but no one is clear how decisions are made, or by whom.
The plan is drafted, but won't be implemented without resolving underlying issues.
You want everyone to be heard and respected, even if they don't agree. You want to do this right.
We are not attorneys, financial advisors, or family therapists.
We help families make critical decisions,
so they can move forward with honesty and care,
and the professionals who serve them can support the family's future.
WHO WE SERVE
Families facing critical decisions.
Every voice matters.
We are drawn to families facing complex choices, where old ways of making decisions, getting things done, and passing things forward no longer fit what the family needs.
Sometimes it's the parents wondering what comes next. Or the one everyone looks to, or the one who's never quite had a voice. Other times it's a group of siblings sorting out what they share.
Whoever first names it, the work belongs to family.
Something important is stuck.
A sibling rift is growing costly. A business transition keeps stalling. A decision everyone needs to make but no one wants to talk about.
You know that pushing harder won't resolve it — but you don't know what will. This is exactly where we begin.
Everyone looks to you. You're the eldest, or the executor, or the one who keeps things running.
You could make the call yourself, but you know it won't be appreciated, and you don't want to carry the cost. Plus, you want help, you don't want to go it alone, you want everyone to understand the "why." You want a process that's fair, clear, and strong enough that everyone can stand behind the outcome.
You've always had something to say. You haven't always had a place to say it.
Maybe you're the next generation, the sibling who moved away, or the one who married in. You care about what happens, and you notice things in a unique way. You're not looking to win. You're looking for a fair way to be heard, and to hear the others too.
You built something real and lasting. Now you wonder: what is it for? And how do you release it without losing what made it strong?
The next chapter of your family's story may require something different from you. Not less strength — different strength. You're open to that, even if you're not sure what it looks like. That openness is exactly where this work begins.
HOW WE BEGIN
The Family
Decision Process
Clarity about how family decisions are made: how, by whom, with whose input, and what it means for all family members.
A Decision Summary your attorney, CPA, planner, and other technical advisors can translate into codifying documents, such as estate plans, trusts, business agreements, property ownership agreements, and care plans.
Every voice heard and honored. A decision your family respects, even if everyone doesn't agree.
This is how Generations Aligned engagements begin, and for many families, it's all they need.
01
Clarify the Decision and Who Decides
We begin by clarifying the decision your family needs to make, who decides, and how everyone else will be involved, Each person knows their role.
02
Listening and Understanding
Confidential one-on-one conversations with each family member. Each person gets unhurried space to share what they want, what they hope for, what worries them, and what they haven't said.
03
Preliminary Findings
Themes, agreements, and gaps summarized in written form with confidentiality. Not a diagnosis, but a shared mirror. The moment when the conversations the family needs to have are made clear and accessible.
04
Facilitated Family Meeting
One or two facilitated sessions where the family discusses the Preliminary Report, shares reactions and implications, considers key decisions, and clarifies next steps. Transparent, respectful, and unhurried.
05
Family Decision Summary
A plain-language written summary of decisions, priorities, and intent, reviewed, approved, and debriefed with your attorney, CPA, or planner to translate into legal documents. We stay engaged to help ensure final documents reflect what your family decided.
HOW WE HELP
Every family is different.
The process fits the family.
Focused Decision
One clear decision among a few family members, such as a single property, a parent's care, or one share of a business. A shorter timeline, with the same care.
Entire-Family Decision
Four to twelve family members, often across generations, deciding about a business, a farm, a philanthropic strategy, or several decisions that affect each other.
Extended Family Decision
Multiple family branches, in-laws, or non-family partners. More conversations, and often more than one facilitated meeting.
Each path begins with a conversation.
We'll help you think through how to invite the rest of your family, often with a short private questionnaire each person answers in their own words. When everyone has agreed to take part, the Family Decision Process begins.
Many families continue their work with an annual family meeting. We also offer individual coaching, retreats, and workshops. Ask us about them.
FOR ADVISORS
We work alongside you.
The plans you build depend on sound, clear family decisions that are recognized as being in the family's best interest: who leads, who inherits, what happens to the property. When situations are complex, we collaborate with you to help the family make decisions with honesty, care, clarity and respect.
We don't give legal, tax, or financial advice. We facilitate and document decisions in a Family Decision Summary that give you clarity and confidence that your work will hold. We partner with you so the family's decisions resonate with the plan you're building.
If you're working with a family facing a hard decision, we'd welcome a conversation about how we might work together.
YOUR FACILITATORS
Who you will
work with.
Polina Crotty
CO-FOUNDER AND LEAD FAMILY ADVISOR
Polina is a Professional Co-Active Coach with twenty years experience as a Certified Financial Planner™ in the fiduciary area of the wealth management field. Polina’s work is greatly influenced by her training in Compassionate Inquiry™ - methodology developed by Dr. Gabor Mate, as well as the Family Constellation framework - a systemic approach which uncovers deep seated patterns and limitations and creates forward movement in individuals, families and organizations.
Polina immigrated with her family at age 13 as Jewish refugees to the USA from Taganrog, Russia, a city just an hour east of the Ukrainian border, at the time of the Soviet Union collapse. The experiences of straddling two cultures, of having roots in countries that are now at conflict with one another, and of seeing families starting over greatly inform how she holds the clients’ stories, histories, and movement towards their visions and dreams.
Polina is a long standing practitioner of mindfulness practices, lover of nature, photography and poetry. Graduate of Wesleyan University, she enjoys continued learning, co-creating and collaborating with professionals, artists, healers and visionaries to promote a deep sense of belonging and integrated wholeness.
Polina and her husband Tim are living in and restoring a 1700s home in Granby, CT, watching their three children grow and blossom, and as often as possible sharing a sunrise or a sunset with them.
Matthew Rezac
CO-FOUNDER AND LEAD FAMILY ADVISOR
Matt’s career has focused on helping leaders, families, businesses, and organizations create positive change in difficult situations. He spent 20+ years in philanthropy, becoming a Director at Susan A. Buffett's Sherwood Foundation. He has “held space” for critical conversations and collaborative action on issues ranging from education, forestry, leadership development, and community-based philanthropy.
Matt has also navigated profound life changes rooted in trauma and substance abuse. He draws upon his personal experiences of healing and spiritual development when working with clients.
Along the way, Matt received a BA in Theology and World Religions and an MA in Pastoral Studies and Small Community Formation. He became a Certified Mindfulness and Wellness Coach, Professional Certified Coach, Certified Technology of Participation (ToP) Facilitator, Qualified Administrator of the Intercultural Development Inventory, and Certified Conflict Dynamics Professional.
Matt is the author of Mindfulness Activities for Adults: 50 Simple Exercises to Relax, Stay Present, and Find Peace. He loves his three daughters and life partner, enjoys writing (songs and blogs), and hiking. He moves often between Santa Fe, NM and Minneapolis, MN.
Follow Matt on Substack and learn more at www.matthewrezac.com.
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If your family is facing a decision — even one you've been
putting off —
We'd welcome a conversation. There's no obligation, just an honest exchange.
Relationships start with a conversation. Change happens through relationships.
Please explore our reflections on family systems and legacy at generationsaligned.substack.com.