Books

Strangers in Paradise: How Families Adapt to Wealth Across Generations

Jim Grubman is currently working on a book based on the groundbreaking insights first outlined with Dennis Jaffe in their 2007 article, Acquirers' and Inheritors' Dilemma: Discovering Life Purpose and Building Personal Identity in the Presence of Wealth. The book will explore in depth the many similarities between the journeys of ethnic immigrants to a new land and those who make an economic transformation from working-class or middle-class life to becoming affluent. Through wealth-creation, marriage, or sudden windfall, these "Immigrants to the Land of Wealth" have many of the emotional stresses, characteristics, and psychological tasks that ethnic immigrants have, including adapting how they raise their children and grandchildren as "Natives in the Land of Wealth." The book draws from the extensive cross-cultural psychology literature about immigration, acculturation, and intergenerational adaptation, combined with the past thirty years of professional learning about the nature of wealth in families. Grounded in a solid understanding of both human nature and wealth, Strangers in Paradise clarifies how families can work together to prepare the next generation to handle wealth comfortably, confidently, and responsibly.