The Success Fund:
"A Structured, Science-Backed Approach to Giving Funds to Adult Children"
The Challenge
Parents want to help their adult children, but financial support often leads to unintended consequences, including:
Dependency – Adult children become reliant on parents, complicating their relationship and reducing independence.
Lack of Drive and Purpose – Unearned wealth can reduce motivation, leading to a lack of personal growth and achievement.
Decreased Happiness – Financial support without purpose can lead to a sense of emptiness and dissatisfaction, as happiness is tied to meaningful goals and achievements.
Family Tension – Unclear (or on the flipside overly restrictive) expectations create resentment, confusion, and misunderstandings between parents and children.
Ad-Hoc Giving Often Leads to ‘Trust Fund Syndrome’
Without structure, financial gifts can create Trust Fund Syndrome: a cycle of dependency, entitlement, and lost potential.
Overly Structured Giving Leads to Family Tension
If parents attach strict conditions to funding, this too can lead to a cycle of dependence and resentment. The adult-child never gets to make their own decisions, which again actually does not lead to the type of success either the parents or child want.
What if we could create “Success Fund Syndrome”?
Introducing:The SMARTer Way to Give
Our 3 Step Process
Step 1: Create an Evidence Backed Vision
Parents work with one of our coaches to come up with a vision of what they want for their children. We encourage it to be backed by the 5 evidence based pillars of happiness. We also encourage it to be broad, giving the adult-child the most freedom possible. The child reviews the vision, to see if they agree or want any changes made. Once the two parties fully agree with the vision we go to Step 2.
Step 2: Create a Concrete Plan with Measurable Outcomes
From this point on the child is in control. They work with one of our coaches to come up with a concrete plan that helps them work to the overall vision. In the process we create measurable outcomes that are achievable. We use evidence backed SMART goals to assist with this process.
Step 3: Funds are Dispersed when Outcomes are Achieved
Each time the child hits a self-identified marker of success, a previously agreed amount of funds is released. This is why call it the ‘success fund.’ The best part of this, is that this kicks off a virtuous cycle of independence and achievement while increasing family unity and gratitude. We love when the success fund leads to actual success!
Why Use Our Process
We view giving money as transformative. If done in an ad-hoc way, it can be negatively transformative. If done in a SMART evidence based way it can be positively transformative.
| Ad-hoc Giving | The Success Fund |
|---|---|
| ❌ Dependency | ✅ Competent Independence |
| ❌ Lack of Drive | ✅ Increased Motivation |
| ❌ Decreased Happiness | ✅ Process Driven Happiness |
| ❌ Source of Family Tension | ✅ Creates Family Unity |
Why Partner with Us
✅ Years of Experience – We have years of experience working with the challenges well-to-do families face.
✅ Properly Credentialed – We’re a team consisting of a registered Marriage and Family Therapist and a Mayo Clinic Certified Wellness Coach. We understand the evidence behind creating happier lives.
✅ Our Unique Science Based Approach – We’ve really thought through creating productive structures for success.
About Us
Tara Sindler (MFT, SEP, CADC-II)
Kiosh Shapiro (MSc, MA, BA)
Our History
We started by working with clients who had trust funds and saw firsthand how unearned wealth can create real struggles. Instead of providing freedom, it often leads to a loss of purpose, low motivation, guilt and isolation. Over time, we realized these weren’t just personal challenges but predictable patterns when money is given without structure. This insight drove us to find a better way.
Our Work Today
Now our work focuses on preventing these challenges before they take root. Instead of dealing with the fallout of unstructured wealth transfers, we help families take a proactive approach, ensuring that financial support fosters independence, purpose, and long-term well-being. The best part of our work is witnessing wealth become more than just money—it becomes a catalyst for purpose, resilience, and lasting change.
More Information
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Tara Sindler is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with a Master’s in Counseling. She began her career in high-end rehabilitation centers, where she saw firsthand how wealth can create unexpected challenges. With deep insight into the emotional and relational struggles within affluent families, she understands that financial prosperity isn’t always the advantage it appears to be—it can profoundly shape motivation, identity, and relationships in complex ways.
Co-founding Trust Fund Tribe is also deeply personal for Tara. She grew up with a trust fund and, until her early thirties, embodied many of the struggles common among trust fund recipients—lack of responsibility, substance use, partying, and a profound sense of dissatisfaction.
Her turning point came when her father told her the money was gone. That moment set her on a path of self-discovery, where she realized her struggles weren’t personal failings but predictable outcomes of her environment. Step by step, she rebuilt her life with purpose and intention. Today, she is a successful therapist with a practice dedicated to helping trust fund recipients navigate these same challenges and build lives of meaning, independence, and fulfillment. -
Kiosh holds two master’s degrees—one in Science and one in Arts—and is a Mayo Clinic-trained Wellness Coach. He specializes in helping families overcome the challenges wealth can create around motivation and happiness.
For Kiosh, this work isn’t just professional—it’s personal. Despite coming from a well-to-do background, he found himself in his mid-30s struggling with purpose and earning very little. He had always assumed coming from wealth was an unqualified advantage and blamed himself for not succeeding. Then he met Tara and realized his struggles were far more common among affluent families than he had thought.
This realization led him to sit down with his mother and create his own "Success Fund"—turning a $1,000 monthly gift into a structured tool for real change. Reframing the true impact of wealth was the turning point that allowed him to finally use it as an advantage he could build on. Now, he helps other families do the same, ensuring financial support fosters growth, independence, and transformation.
Clients who have adult children who are struggling to find success
Clients who have given their adult children money, but usually only in times of need (or after the child has made bad decisions)
Clients who will leave their children an inheritance that is large enough that it will alter their lives.
The Clients We Are Able Help the Most
Curious to Learn More?
We would love to chat to understand how we could serve you and your family. If you are a professional with clients who could benefit from our services please reach out as well. Below is a link to our calendar to set up a free 30 minute consult with us. If you have any questions, there is a form for that below as well.