Family Business Director

October 5, 2020 Planning & Strategy

Is There a Ticking Time Bomb Lurking in Your Family Business?

Buy-sell agreements don’t matter until they do. When written well and understood by all the parties, buy-sell agreements can minimize headaches when a family business hits one of life’s inevitable potholes. But far too many are written poorly and/or misunderstood. Directors are always eager to discuss best practices for buy-sell agreements.

Excerpted from our recent book, The 12 Questions That Keep Family Business Directors Awake at Night, we address this week the question, “Is there a ticking time bomb lurking in your family business?”

September 28, 2020 Planning & Strategy Shareholder Engagement

How to Communicate Risk to Family Shareholders

Communicating risk effectively is a challenge for all companies.  Making too much of the risk can alienate customers and erode the credibility that might be critical when a threat actually materializes.  On the other hand, insufficient risk disclosure can result in liability that threatens the company’s existence.  A recent article in the Harvard Business Review addressed this challenge in customer communications.  The authors of “The Art of Communicating Risk” offer three suggestions for communicating risk to customers more effectively.  In this post, we will review those suggestions, and think about how they might apply to communicating risk to family shareholders.

September 21, 2020 Taxes

Family Business Director’s Planning for Estate Taxes To-Do List

In this week’s post, we provide a to-do list of important tasks for family business directors seeking to help prevent, or at least minimize, unhappy surprises resulting from the estate tax.

September 14, 2020 Capital Structure

The Evolving Landscape for Family Capital

Two Developments That Will Affect Family Businesses

The rise of the family office as a source of investment capital for other businesses is the best evidence that families are comfortable looking outside the family business to generate returns on family capital. Just as liquid naturally flows to the lowest point, capital naturally flows to its highest and best use. The viscosity of family capital is high, so it may take longer to move, but it eventually will. In the context of this broader trend, we propose three things for family business directors to begin thinking about.

September 8, 2020 Valuation

Why Your Family Business Has More Than One Value

It is understandably frustrating for family business directors when the simple question – what is our family business worth? – elicits a complicated answer.  While we would certainly prefer to give a simple answer, the reality a valuation is attempting to describe is not simple.

The answer depends on why the question is being asked.  We know that sounds suspect, but in this post, we will demonstrate why it’s not.  Let’s consider three potential scenarios that require three different answers.

August 31, 2020 Planning & Strategy

Acquisition Strategies for Family Businesses

Casting a Wider Net May Reveal Attractive Opportunities in the Downturn

As we noted in last week’s post, directors should take this economic opportunity to think more broadly about the portfolio of assets owned by their family business. Are any pieces extraneous? Are there any pieces that are missing? For family businesses that have hesitated to make acquisitions in the past, the missing pieces do not have to be big, nor do they have to be existing competitors. In this week’s post, we offer five categories of targets we think would be helpful to expand your list of potential acquisition opportunities.

August 24, 2020 Current Events Planning & Strategy

Planning for Post-Pandemic Life for Family Businesses

Family directors have rightly been focused on keeping their people safe and healthy, and taking the steps necessary to help their businesses survive the pandemic.  It will eventually be time to look ahead, however.  When that time comes for your family business, what will you be thinking about? 

August 17, 2020 Planning & Strategy

Estate Planning Opportunities in the Current Environment

This week our blog features a short (less than 30 minute) webcast that provides insight on the current opportunity to enhance the long-term sustainability of your family business.

August 10, 2020 Current Events Performance Measurement

How Is Your Family Business Performing in the COVID-19 Pandemic?

One thing in short supply thus far in the pandemic has been perspective.  We know that GDP fell by more than 30% during the second quarter, but how does that translate into the actual financial performance of businesses?  Family business directors have been flying blind over the past few months, with no reliable way to benchmark the performance of their businesses. 

Earnings season for the second quarter of 2020 gives us the first opportunity to see how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting businesses. In this post, we elaborate on four themes that emerge from the data.

August 3, 2020 Current Events Taxes

Now Is a Great Time to Transfer Stock to Heirs

Depressed Market Values Provide an Opportunity for Tax-Efficient Transfers of Family Wealth for Estate Planning Purposes

The economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are dire, and family businesses are not immune to the economic fallout from the virus. Yet we are confident that family businesses are best positioned to survive and lead in the post-pandemic economic recovery.

For family shareholders who are optimistic about the resilience of their family businesses and focused on the long view, this is an ideal time to execute intrafamily transfers in pursuit of estate planning objectives.