Financial Education for Heirs: A Decade Teaching at Nova SBE

A will can transfer a company on a given day. A shareholder agreement can transfer votes. No document can transfer judgment. The heir receives the shares on the date the papers say. The understanding needed to own them arrives later, or not at all, and in the meantime someone else makes the decisions. That gap, between inheriting wealth and being ready to steward it, is why I think financial education for heirs in an ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) family is infrastructure. It needs a standing place at home, not an occasional conversation over dinner.

From 2014 to 2024 I was an Invited Professor at Nova SBE, where I taught Advanced Financial Modelling, Financial Markets Trading and Programming for Business to more than 2,000 students. Today, at PWA, I design and run the operating layer around private wealth for families and their offices.

Financial literacy as family infrastructure

Infrastructure is what a family maintains on a schedule because everything else runs on it. Consolidated reporting, the entity map and the list of who signs for what are infrastructure. Nobody debates whether to keep them current.

Most families treat financial education as an event. A child asks a question, a liquidity event forces a conversation, a parent falls ill. The topic is urgent for a week, then disappears. The result is an heir who has heard about the wealth many times and never worked with it.

Treating literacy as infrastructure changes three things. It gets a calendar, not a moment. It uses the family’s real documents, not generic examples. And it gets an owner: one person in the family or the family office who answers for it, the same way one person answers for the reporting.

What ten years in a Nova SBE classroom taught me

Nova SBE, whose International Master’s in Management the Financial Times ranked 2nd worldwide in its Masters in Management 2026 ranking, expects a lot of its students. My courses sat at the technical end of the curriculum: building financial models, trading markets, writing code for business problems.

Ten years and more than 2,000 students left me with three observations that matter for heirs. They are observations, not data: I did not measure them.

Knowing a formula is not the same as judging a risk. What I saw: many students could compute a volatility or a discounted cash flow correctly. Fewer could say what the number meant for a decision, or when it was the wrong number to look at. An heir meets the same gap in every portfolio review.

People learn faster when the numbers are real. What I saw: attention changed when a model ran on live market data or a real company’s accounts instead of a textbook exercise. For an heir, nothing is more concrete than the family’s own balance sheet.

Reading a market is easier than reading a structure. What I saw: students learned to read prices, spreads and order books. Very few had looked at how ownership actually works: the entity that owns an asset, the custodian that keeps it, the agreements between them. In a wealthy family, much of the operational risk sits in that chain.

The classroom was one side. The other was practice. I worked as a high-frequency algorithmic trader at DV Trading, on technology strategy for financial services at Accenture, and as technology team lead on a regulatory analytics platform at Banco de Portugal. Today I am also CTO of a SaaS company. Every seat taught the same lesson: the people across the table understand the system better than the owner, unless the owner learns it.

Next gen financial literacy is leadership training

Much of what passes for next gen financial literacy covers budgeting, compound interest and the difference between a stock and a bond. That is personal finance. An heir to a complex balance sheet needs something closer to leadership training. Preparing the next generation of leaders means preparing people who will chair meetings, approve decisions and hire advisors, in the financial sector and beyond.

I see five domains. Each one answers a question a future owner will have to ask.

• Markets. How do the assets we own get priced, and what moves them? Without this, every performance report is a story someone else tells.
• Risk. What could lose us money, how much and how fast? A concentrated position fails differently from a diversified portfolio.
• Capital allocation. Where should the next euro go, and what does it compete with? Owners make this decision constantly and rarely learn it formally.
• Governance. Who decides, under which rules, and where is it written down? Family governance is a set of documents and a set of habits. An heir needs both.
• Technology. Which systems hold our data, who has access and what breaks if one fails? Reporting, custody and payments all run on software.

The financial sector deserves the most weight. Banks, custodians, fund managers and brokers hold, price and report the family’s financial assets. An heir who does not know how each of them earns money cannot judge whether their interests match the family’s.

In July 2023 a European Commission Eurobarometer survey found that only 18% of EU citizens have a high level of financial literacy, 64% a medium level and 18% a low level. That figure describes the general population, not heirs. Still, a family cannot count on osmosis when fewer than one in five adults reach a high level.

Why it matters more in UHNW families

In a UHNW family, not knowing costs more, for six reasons.

1. Succession. Ownership and control move between generations, often over years. An heir who cannot read the succession planning documents cannot take part in them.
2. Governance. Decisions run through shareholder agreements, boards and family meetings. A vote cast without understanding is a vote cast blind.
3. Concentrated or complex assets. An operating company, a property portfolio and a handful of private deals do not behave like a listed portfolio. Their risks are harder to see and slower to fix.
4. Cross-border structures. Several jurisdictions, several banks, several custodians. The succession structures built across them only work if someone in the next generation can read them as a whole.
5. Dependence on advisors. An heir who cannot evaluate an advisor ends up delegating to that advisor. Delegation without evaluation is not trust. It is exposure.
6. Reputational risk. A known family name turns a poor decision into a public one.

In the UBS Global Family Office Report 2025, which surveyed 317 family offices in more than 30 markets, 43% saw preparing the next generation to take on wealth responsibly as a great challenge, and only 26% consulted the next generation about the succession plan from the outset. J.P. Morgan Private Bank’s 2026 Global Family Office Report, covering 333 single-family offices across 30 countries, found 86% still lacking a succession plan. These figures describe family offices, not every wealthy family. In my reading, they show structures built before the people who will own them are ready.

Financial literacy as a subject at home

This is why I call it a mandatory subject at every home. Not a lecture, not a reward. A subject, with a curriculum, a schedule and a person responsible for it. I wrote about the governance side of this in family governance for the next generation.

What should financial education for heirs cover?

Financial education for heirs should cover the family’s own balance sheet, its entities and custodians, who pays each advisor and how, how the family makes and records decisions, and enough market and risk knowledge to question all of it. It works best on the family’s real documents, on a recurring schedule, with responsibility rising over time.

A bank-run next-gen programme can teach useful material. Its limit is structural: a bank sees only the assets it holds.

Family wealth education versus generic next-gen courses

Good education uses the family’s own consolidated reporting, its entity map, its investment policy statement (IPS) and its governance documents: from the family constitution, the written agreement on the family’s values, decision rights and ownership rules, to the minutes of the family council, the body through which the family meets and agrees its position.

How to raise financially responsible children

The same logic works at younger ages, scaled down. I do not rely on fixed ages; I recommend a progression. Children observe: they hear how the family talks about money and decisions. Teenagers explain: they read a simplified statement and say what changed and why. Young adults decide, under supervision, on something with real but limited consequences. Responsibility grows with demonstrated judgment, not with age alone. The habit matters more than any single lesson.

A next-generation crash course built on your family’s own structures

This is the work I now offer families: a next-generation financial-literacy crash course built on the family’s own assets, structures and decisions. There is no standard package. Format, duration and content follow what the family owns and how it decides.

The heir works on the family’s entity map, custodian statements, IPS and governance documents, and learns to read them, question them and use them in a real decision.

It is education about the family’s own structures and decisions. It is not investment, tax or legal advice. PWA does not manage money, hold mandates, take commissions or give regulated investment, tax or legal advice. The family’s licensed advisors stay in their roles. The course teaches the heir how to work with them: what to ask, what to check and when to push back.

For a family with its own office, this is what a next gen family office programme looks like when it runs independently of anyone selling product. It sits within PWA’s work on next-generation education.

Where to start

Start with one question. If the senior generation stepped back tomorrow, who in the family could read the balance sheet and question the advisors? If the answer is no one, or only one person, the gap already exists. It closes only with time and practice, and that time costs less now than later.

If this is a conversation your family should have, start with a private, confidential conversation.

Questions we hear

What should financial education for heirs include?

It should cover five domains: markets, risk, capital allocation, governance and technology. The family should teach each one on its own documents: consolidated reporting, the entity map, custodian statements, the investment policy statement and the family constitution. The aim is an heir who can read the whole balance sheet and question the people who run parts of it.

When should parents start teaching children about family wealth?

Early, and in stages. In my view, children can start by observing how the family talks about money and decisions. Teenagers can read simplified statements and explain them. Young adults can take supervised decisions with real but limited consequences. I do not rely on fixed ages; the child’s demonstrated judgment should set the pace.

How do you raise financially responsible children in a wealthy family?

Make money a normal subject, not a secret or a reward. Give children real information at a level they can handle, and let responsibility grow with the judgment they show. Use the family’s own decisions as material. Above all, keep it regular: a standing habit teaches more than any single conversation or course.

What is a next gen programme in a family office?

It is a structured way to prepare heirs for ownership. Banks and family offices often run them as seminars or peer events. An independent programme adds what those formats miss: it uses the family’s own balance sheet, entities and governance documents, runs on a recurring schedule and answers to the family rather than to a product provider.

Is a next-generation financial-literacy course the same as investment advice?

No. The course is education about the family’s own structures and decisions. It explains how the family holds, values, reports and governs its assets, so the heir can work with licensed advisors. PWA does not give regulated investment, tax or legal advice. Recommendations on specific investments, tax positions or legal structures stay with the family’s licensed advisors.

Sources

All pages opened and checked on 8 October 2026.

• European Commission, “Eurobarometer survey reveals low levels of financial literacy across the EU”, 18 July 2023. Supports: 18% of EU citizens with a high level of financial literacy, 64% medium, 18% low. finance.ec.europa.eu
• UBS, “UBS Global Family Office Report 2025” (press release), 21 May 2025. Supports: 317 family offices in more than 30 markets; 43% see preparing the next generation to take on wealth responsibly as a great challenge; 26% consult the next generation about the succession plan from the outset. ubs.com
• J.P. Morgan Private Bank, “2026 Global Family Office Report”, 2026. Supports: 333 single-family offices across 30 countries; 86% still lacking a succession plan. privatebank.jpmorgan.com
• Nova SBE, “Nova SBE makes history by achieving 2nd place worldwide in the Financial Times Masters in Management ranking”, 7 September 2026. Supports: International Master’s in Management, 2nd worldwide in the FT Masters in Management 2026 ranking. novasbe.unl.pt

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Pedro Souto is the founder of PWA — Private Wealth Advisory. He works with UHNW founders, families, and single-family offices to build an independent operating layer around complex wealth — combining markets, analytics, technology, and governance to turn fragmented advice into one coherent picture, and to make someone, finally, responsible for the whole of it.