Family Business Director

Corporate Finance & Planning Insights for Multi-Generational Family Businesses

COVID-19 Coverage Special Topics Valuation

Coronavirus and the Value of Your Family Business

As family business leaders continue to make hard decisions in real-time against the ever-changing backdrop of the pandemic, their legal and tax advisors would do well to consider whether this is an opportune time for intra-family ownership transfers.  For many family businesses, the current economic uncertainty presents a unique, and perhaps fleeting, opportunity for more tax-efficient estate planning.

Special Topics

Notes from Transitions Spring 2020

Family Culture and Dividend Policy

Family Business Director attended the Transitions Spring 2020 conference in sunny Tampa last week. In this post, we discuss a few recurring themes from the conference.

Planning & Strategy

Is Your Family Business Risky Enough?

Family business directors should carefully consider how to integrate the risk of the family business with the risk of the family as a whole. Like their publicly-traded brethren, it may turn out that some family businesses aren’t risky enough.

Special Topics

Jeweler to the 0.1%

The Cartiers: The Untold Story of the Family Behind the Jewelry Empire, by Francesca Cartier Brickell

In this week’s post we discuss, The Cartiers: The Untold Story of the Family Behind the Jewelry Empire written by Francesca Cartier Brickell.

Planning & Strategy

When Is Our Next Turning Point Breakfast?

Is Your Closely Held or Family Business at a Turning Point and Do You Need to Talk?

In this post, Chris Mercer discusses a very important breakfast he had some time ago with a client and friend who is second-generation chairman, CEO, and lead family member of a very successful, third-generation family business. That breakfast served as a turning point for him and his business and the family.

Planning & Strategy

Selling Your Family Business

When M&A markets are robust, as they are now, we find that some families start to think about selling the family business. There’s a good chance that families contemplating a sale have never sold a business before, and may not know quite what to expect. In this week’s post, we provide a brief overview of the steps involved in selling a business.

Shareholder Engagement

How to Communicate Financial Results to Family Shareholders (Part 2)

Everyone agrees that communication promotes positive shareholder engagement, but what does it look like to communicate financial results effectively?  In this series of posts, we offer practical suggestions for presenting key financial data in ways that family shareholders find useful.  In the last post, we focused on the balance sheet; this week, we turn our attention to the income statement.

Special Topics

Credit Market Outlook: 2020

Regardless of how much debt a family business operates with, access to credit when it is needed is essential.  In this week’s post, Andy Gibbs describes the key factors affecting banks’ willingness to loan money to family businesses, and provides an overview of what the credit outlook looks like for 2020.

Consulting Services

Family Business Advisory Services

Mercer Capital provides financial education services and other strategic financial consulting to family businesses