Todd Morgan isn’t a family therapist, but he’s seen his share of feuds. Not surprising when there’s billions of dollars at stake. A longtime Goldman Sachs investment counselor, Morgan now caters to L.A.’s wealthiest individuals as senior managing director and co-founder of Bel Air Investment Advisors. Besides giving investment advice, the Century City firm specializes in helping families navigate the complex issues of wealth transfer and business succession. The 63-year-old said there’s a fine line to be walked when advising wealthy parents, who need to know how to pass along the family fortune without either causing resentment among their children or sapping their will to succeed.

Question: Who are your typical clients?

Answer: The minimum we take is $20 million and I would say the typical client’s net worth is $50 million on up to people that have several billion dollars.

Do your clients often try to bring their kids into the family business?

In a perfect world, you’d want your kid to come work with you, help you build the business; you pass it on to them and let them take it to the next level. But some (business owners) in their 60s and 70s say my kids really can’t run my business and they end up selling it; that’s more common. There are some children that should not go to work for the family business because they’re not equipped, their father’s a dictator, they don’t get along that well and it will enflame a relationship.

But there are examples of companies that improved after junior took over.

Some kids are great business people and could get involved right away in their 20s. I’ve seen them take a business from one- to five-fold because the kids are terrific and work well with their family.

Is there a good way to prepare your kids to take over the family business?

What I’ve seen people do is they want their children to go out and learn the basics away from them and work for somebody that they’re not the child of so they’re treated like an employee. Once they learn what it’s like in the real world working for somebody else, then many people allow their children to come back in their own business. Teach them how to fish, so to speak.

What are the biggest challenges for wealthy parents?

Some of the interesting challenges are how much to give your children and when to give that to them. Where do you corrupt or take away incentives for kids to be motivated to do their own thing?

How much is too much?

I wouldn’t drop millions of dollars in their laps as a teenager, but you give them something so they start to manage their checkbooks. I think it’s a decent idea to give your kids enough money to pay for their food, their home, etc.

Why not give them more than that?

Once you go beyond that, I think you might go in excess. That’s dangerous. It’s hard to bring them back if you spoil them. The worst thing you can do is take away a child’s motivation by giving them everything.

How much do their kids ultimately get?

My guess is the average kid gets around $25 million, and over and above that the money would go primarily into a family foundation.

That’s a lot of money. How can parents keep their kids motivated?

What some people do is they have a matching program: “If you make $200,000 a year, we’ll match it.” How’s that for an incentive? They make twice as much money, and by the way, the second half is after tax.

Wouldn’t withholding the whole inheritance till late in life motivate the children?

What we don’t like to see is the kids getting nothing or very little. It can cause problems.

What kind of problems?

What we’ve found is that if the kids know what’s waiting for them and (it is withheld), they’re just waiting for that huge amount of money some day. When they get it at age 50, all of a sudden they’re buying planes, boats, sports cars.

Is that so terrible?

I’ve seen times where (the kids) wait for their parents to die so they can go out and buy the toys, goods, homes and things they want. You don’t want your kids to wait for you to pass away.