Planning is key: Parents can’t reliably predict when they’re going to be, say, tapped to be president, or need to divest, or transfer, their ownership for some other reason, so they should start planning now to get the kids ready ‘just in case.’

Get along: Even some of the closest sibling relationships are destroyed when siblings become business partners. The expectations and dynamics of sibling partners are different in some important ways than they are with normal siblings.

When the parents are gone … : Parents often see their adult children working together in different parts of the family business/empire — all working under their direction, and erroneously conclude that if they are working together now, they should still be able to collaborate on their own if they are out of the picture. This assumption on the parents’ part couldn’t be further from reality. The scenario is completely altered when parents exit the picture — or move to the White House. Most critically, the power dynamics among the siblings shift radically the moment a parent steps aside.

The Mar-a-Lago retreat: So should President-elect Trump decide how the next generation should work together? No. Instead, he should tell his children to go off to Camp David, or Mar-a-Lago, and spend three days hammering out exactly how they think they could work together as a team. Who would have which roles? What authority would each of them have to make decisions? How will they communicate with one another? How will they handle their differences and any conflicts that arise? Who is going to own what and how are they going to be compensated?