Wattie Advisory Group
The Due Diligence
Nobody Does
Relational Due Diligence™ — like an MRI for the family enterprise, revealing the hidden fractures and healing them so the structure can hold.
Start a Private ConversationYou know how before any major business deal, due diligence is conducted — to surface exactly what is being bought. The hidden liabilities. The dirty secrets. The things that could blow the whole deal apart.
Seventy percent of family succession plans fail within the first generation.
Not because of bad legal structures. Not because of poor financial planning.
Because nobody did due diligence on the relationships.
That is what we do.
The Method
The Relational Portrait™
The MRI Nobody Orders
We start with our Relational Portrait™ — which works like an MRI. It surfaces the hidden fractures in the family relationships. The fault lines nobody is talking about. The things that look fine on the outside but will blow the succession apart from the inside.
Once we can see them — we can heal them. Strengthen them. So that when the legal, financial, and structural plans are put in place — the relationships can actually hold the weight.
We call it Relational Due Diligence™. And if you want that done — there is only one place to come.
How It Works
Three Steps.
One Clear Picture.
01
The Relational Portrait™
A 3D diagnostic that reveals what conversation cannot. We map the actual relational architecture of the family — the alliances, the distances, the trust pathways, the positions each person is operating from. Not what they say is happening. What is actually there. Sixty minutes. More insight than months of meetings.
02
The Diagnostic
We apply the full RDD™ diagnostic across five domains: the founding couple, the founder-heir relationship, sibling dynamics, peripheral voices, and communication patterns. Each domain assessed against a framework developed across twenty years and thousands of families.
03
The Report
A structured professional document designed to sit alongside the existing legal and financial advice. It identifies what the relational architecture can currently hold, what it cannot, and exactly what needs to happen before the succession plan can be safely executed. Designed to be shared with the full advisory team.
For Advisors
The Missing Member
of the Advisory Team
Most of the families we work with arrive through a referral from an advisor who has reached the edge of what their expertise can address.
"There's something else going on."
That sentence, in various forms, has preceded almost every significant engagement we have had. The advisor who says it is not admitting failure. They are identifying the boundary of their professional lane with precision and integrity. They have done everything their expertise equips them to do. And they are recognising — correctly — that what remains requires a different kind of expertise.
We are not a competitor to the existing advisory team. We are the missing member of it. The lawyer handles legal structure. The accountant handles financial architecture. The family office handles asset management. We examine the human infrastructure — the trust, the communication, the relational map — and report back in terms the whole team can work with.
Who is the one client on your desk right now whose succession plan is technically sound but relationally impossible?
You know who it is. The name came to you before you finished reading that sentence. That is where this work begins.
Start a Referral ConversationWho This Is For
You'll Recognise
Your Situation Here
- A succession plan that is technically complete but the family cannot execute it — because the relationships underneath it are not holding.
- A founding couple navigating the transition out of the business — and discovering the business was the primary language of their relationship.
- A founder and heir who have worked together for decades and have never had the conversation that would change everything.
- Siblings who are now co-owners of a significant shared inheritance and whose childhood dynamics are running a boardroom.
- An advisor who has reached the edge of what their expertise can address — and knows something else is needed.
- A family in crisis — where the stakes are too high for standard approaches and speed matters.
This page is designed for advisors and professional referral partners. If you are a family, couple, or leader navigating this personally —
the main advisory page is where to start →Begin Here
Start a Private Conversation
Every engagement begins with a private conversation — no obligation, no sales process. We listen to your situation and tell you honestly whether we can help and what that would look like. We work with a small number of families at any time. If the situation is right, we move quickly. Discretion is foundational to everything we do.
Havelock North, New Zealand
Serving clients across New Zealand, Australia, and the Asia-Pacific region
Wattie Advisory Group
The Relational Portrait™
A deep diagnostic of the relational system operating inside any family, couple, team, or organisation.
Watch the demonstration. Then explore the live portrait below.
See It In Action
The Demonstration
Watch how the 3D Relational Simulation™ reveals what language cannot — and how each family member's map combines into a single portrait of the relational system.
The Live Tool
Now place the figures yourself.
The Relational Portrait is a live interactive tool. Place the figures. Activate the Trust Lens. Reveal the ideal state.
This is what we see before the first family conversation begins.
Try the Portrait →