Family Business Director

January 17, 2022 Planning & Strategy Taxes

2022 Tax Update for Estate Planners and Family Businesses

As 2022 kicks off, tax policy largely remains unchanged from a year ago. President Biden’s Build Back Better Act went through numerous iterations over the year and was politicked down from a headline program cost of $3.5 trillion to $1.7 trillion before ultimately being kiboshed by Senator Joe Manchin in late December.

But where does that leave estate planners and family businesses? There are three things estate planners and business advisors need to keep top of mind regarding tax policy in 2022.

January 10, 2022 Capital Budgeting

Deciding What to Decide

Capital Allocation in Family Businesses

How are you and your fellow directors deciding what to decide? Is there consensus around the economic meaning of your family business to your family? Gaining consensus around the meaning of your family business can be a crucial first step to making all the strategic finance decisions you make line up with one another.

January 4, 2022 Planning & Strategy

Is Your Family Business READY for 2022?

Our family business clients naturally want to know what their business is worth today. But an even better question asked by many of them is what they can do today to make their family business more valuable tomorrow. While the specifics of value creation are unique to each business, we like to use a common framework to help our clients identify pathways for creating value.

We present key elements of this framework in this week’s blog post, to get your family business ready for 2022.

December 27, 2021 Special Topics

A 2021 Review of Family Business Director

We hope you had a great Christmas and a happy holiday season. To end the year, we summarize some themes and most read pieces from Family Business Director you may have missed throughout the year. Enjoy!

December 13, 2021 Special Topics

Charlie Munger, Elon Musk, Kenny Rogers and Your Family Business

Where does your family business find itself during the current planning cycle? Are there investing convictions that your family business should double down on like Elon Musk, or is it time to follow the Gambler’s advice and take some chips off the table? And what does Charlie Munger have to do with this? Check out this week’s post to find out.

December 6, 2021 Special Topics

5 Questions with Dennis Hinton

An Interview with the Managing Director of a Private Investment Firm Focused on Non-Controlling Equity Investments in Family Businesses

In this post, Travis Harms sat down with Dennis Hinton, Managing Director at North River Group, to speak about some common reasons family businesses seek non-family equity and how family business owners can achieve liquidity and diversification.

November 29, 2021 Dividend Policy Special Topics

Family Business Dividend Survey Results

This summer, we partnered with Family Business Magazine to conduct our inaugural survey of dividend practices at family-owned businesses.  This week, we feature an article that we wrote for the magazine summarizing the survey results.  We hope you enjoy and gain some insights that can help you and your family evaluate your current policy and make plans for the future.

November 22, 2021 Planning & Strategy

Family Business Director’s Top Ten Questions Not to Ask at Thanksgiving Dinner

For most of us, Thanksgiving is a time to disregard normal dietary restraint in the company of extended family members that one rarely sees.  For some enterprising families, however, Thanksgiving quickly devolves from a Rockwellian family gathering to a Costanza-style airing of grievances.  So, in the holiday spirit, we offer this list of the top ten questions not to ask at Thanksgiving dinner.  If you have trouble distinguishing between the board room and the dining room, this list is for you.

November 16, 2021 Performance Measurement

Built Ford “Family” Tough

Ford, Rivian, and Lessons on Family Business Diversifications

Following Rivian’s recent IPO, the Ford Motor Company’s $1 billion investment in the electric vehicle startup is now worth about $18 billion. With this investment representing more than 20% of Ford’s total equity market capitalization, it raises some interesting questions for family business directors contemplating the role of diversification within their businesses and families. In this week’s post, we consider the what, who, and why of diversification.

November 9, 2021 Special Topics

Can You Hear Me Now? Lessons from a $20 Billion Family Business Fight

The recent turmoil engulfing the Rogers family, controlling shareholders of the $20 billion Canadian wireless communications and media conglomerate Rogers Communication, piqued our interest. What can public family strife affecting the Rogers family teach us? Well, quite a bit. In this post, we summarize the family drama and provide three strategies to keep in mind to stave off harsh family infighting that can, ultimately, bleed over into your company’s ability to operate effectively.