Family Business Director

September 19, 2022 Planning & Strategy Special Topics

What’s Lurking on Your Family’s Balance Sheet?

Any good CFO or Controller knows what’s on their business’ balance sheet, including cash, inventory, property, and debt. But for enterprising families, it is often necessary to go one step further and ask what’s on the family’s balance sheet? It may be your great uncle’s antique car collection, a ski chalet shared by you and your family, or rare art that adorns your office. Whatever it may be, there are three things we think you should consider regarding your more esoteric family balance sheet items: valuation, diversification, and allocation.

September 13, 2022 Planning & Strategy Special Topics Taxes

What Should We Do About Estate Taxes?

Most family business owners desire to provide financially for their family. Due to this, one of the widespread concerns of these owners is the ability to transfer ownership of the family business to the next generation in the most tax-efficient way. In this post, we explain the importance of understanding the concept of fair market value when evaluating an estate planning strategy and some potential next steps to take to ensure the estate plan accomplishes the desired goals.

September 6, 2022 Special Topics

Introducing the Family Business Director On Demand Resource Center

We are excited to announce the grand opening of our Family Business On Demand Resource Center.  The Center is a one-stop shop for enterprising families and their advisors facing the financial challenges that are common to family business.

August 29, 2022 Planning & Strategy Special Topics

What We’ve Been Reading

How to get a non-family CEO and a family ownership team on the same page regarding financial goals, dealing with a family member who needs to step down from leadership, and the turnaround story of family-owned Radio Flyer are some of what we’ve been reading about as fall approaches. In this week’s post, we share a few interesting articles you and your family board members may enjoy.

August 22, 2022 Performance Measurement Planning & Strategy Special Topics

Review of Key Economic Indicators for Family Businesses

With economic data for 2Q22 trickling in, we take a look at a few key trends that developed during the quarter.  Volatile equity markets, ongoing inflationary concerns, and rising interest rates drove headlines in the second quarter of the year. The information in this post provides a concise and unbiased look at some of the trends that manifested themselves during the quarter.

August 15, 2022 Planning & Strategy Shareholder Engagement

Stock Buybacks and Family Businesses

Stock buybacks were in the news last week as the newly-passed Inflation Reduction Act includes a provision levying a 1% excise tax on share repurchases by public companies. As we’ve noted in previous posts, we question Congress’s grasp of the basic economics of a stock buyback, but Congress is not our focus today. 

Privately held family businesses are exempt from the tax, but directors need to understand the real economics of stock buybacks (or, in the case of family businesses, shareholder redemptions).

August 8, 2022 Planning & Strategy

These Loafers Are Made for Walkin’

Italian Shoemaker, Tod's, Opts Out of the Public Markets

Last week, Tod’s – the Italian maker of luxury shoes – announced plans by the founding Della Valle family to take the company private. We discuss the motive behind this transaction and two obligations of all family businesses (public or not) that we believe this transaction highlights.

August 1, 2022 Planning & Strategy Shareholder Engagement Special Topics

How to Have “The Talk” With Your Family Directors

In this post, we discuss three simple rules that can help promote impactful and productive dialogue between parents, children, and different generations in your family business: big picture first, be transparent, and remember priorities. Having these transitional and educational conversations is essential for family businesses.

July 25, 2022 Special Topics

2022 Benchmarking Guide for Family Business Directors

Making Sense of 2021

Benchmarking is a powerful tool for family businesses.  Done well, benchmarking provides managers and directors with valuable insight and context for evaluating the operating performance of the family business and the strategic investing and financing decisions made by their leaders. 

This blog post will summarize some of the findings in our 2022 Benchmarking Guide for Family Business Directors. 

July 18, 2022 Special Topics Valuation

Only 2% of Small Businesses Know This Key Fact

Do you know how much cash is on your family business balance sheet? How about receivable health and your debt position? Reading this blog, you likely answered “yes” to these questions.

Do you also know how much your family business is worth?

If you answered “Yes,” you are in a select company as 98% of small businesses polled by M&T Bank over the past two years didn’t know the value of their businesses. Knowing and understanding the value of your family business is essential to making critical decisions around dividends, capital structure, or capital budgeting that have long-term effects on your family business.

Travis Harms, who leads Mercer Capital’s Family Business Advisory Services Group, spoke to CNBC recently on the importance of valuation and understanding the value of your business. This week’s Family Business Director post highlights the piece, and we hope you check it out.