What a Sushi Chain Can Teach Family Businesses About Shareholder Surveys
What if boards took a more disciplined approach to listening?
Family Business Advisory Services
Mercer Capital helps family business leaders navigate complex financial, governance, and shareholder issues with clarity and confidence. Our advisory services support families in balancing stewardship, liquidity, and growth across generations
Recent Work
Real estate company
Southeast
Designed and administered confidential shareholder survey to assess shareholder return expectations and risk tolerance.
Diversified industrial company
Northeast
Designed and administered confidential shareholder survey to assess shareholder liquidity needs and expectations.
Manufacturing company
Midwest
Designed and led series of shareholder education workshops fostering financial literacy and shareholder engagement.
Real estate company
Southwest
Designed and led series of shareholder education workshops and one-on-one shareholder education sessions regarding financial impact of proposed corporate restructuring.
Business services provider
Southwest
Collaborated with family council and company management to design dividend policy.
Specialty chemicals company
Mid-Atlantic
Advised on development of sustainable redemption policy to support shareholder liquidity needs.
Consulting business
Midwest
Advised company and shareholders on large redemption and recapitalization program to reshape ownership and position the business for future growth.
Diversified petroleum company
Southeast
Led team of senior executives in comprehensive evaluation of the cost of capital across the company’s principal business units.
Manufacturing company
Northwest
Prepared current and prospective valuation analyses of business, along with assessment of recent transaction activity in the industry to assist family shareholders in evaluating strategic alternatives.
Consumer packaged goods company
Southeast
Advised company and shareholders on strategic financing capital investment decisions.
Manufacturing company
Southeast
Advised on recapitalization of business amid industry turmoil.
Manufacturing company
Midwest
Prepared custom benchmarking analysis of key performance, investment, and return data for company against select peer group.
We help family ownership groups, boards, and management teams align their perspectives on the financial realities, needs, and opportunities of the business.
We also help family business boards and management teams explain strategic financial decisions to shareholders and help shareholders communicate preferences to boards and management teams.
We have had the privilege of working with successful family and closely held businesses for the past 40 years. Given our experience, we are convinced that an engaged and informed shareholder base is essential for the long-term health and success of a family or closely held business. Yet, cultivating an engaged and informed shareholder base is often difficult. We can help.
Sector expertise
Decades of Experience and Expertise.
Shareholder Surveys & Education
Mercer Capital helps family owners communicate clearly, understand their roles, and align expectations through structured surveys, education programs, and facilitated discussions.
Dividend & Redemption Policies
Mercer Capital helps families design policies that balance liquidity needs, business reinvestment, and long-term sustainability.
Capital Structure & Capital Budgeting
Mercer Capital helps family enterprises evaluate debt and equity mix, reinvestment priorities, and long-term funding strategies that align with shareholder goals.
Performance Measurement & Benchmarking
Mercer Capital helps families define, interpret, and communicate financial performance through tailored benchmarking, key metrics, and education that connect results to shareholder objectives.
Frequently Asked Questions
We bring together valuation, financial, and governance expertise to help family enterprises make better strategic financial decisions. Our work is rooted in understanding both the economics of the business and what the business means to the family, ensuring decisions support the long-term sustainability of family ownership. We equip families to balance business sustainability with family harmony when making decisions involving dividends, capital structure, capital budgeting, and shareholder liquidity.
Even the most capable families benefit from a trusted outside perspective. Independent advisors bring objectivity to decisions that can otherwise be clouded by family dynamics or history. At Mercer Capital, our role isn’t to replace family judgment but to leverage our valuation and finance expertise to equip family business directors with the data, frameworks, and confidence to make well-informed choices.
We are focused on helping clients achieve alignment regarding strategic financial decisions that will have long-term implications for the family. Our approach combines technical rigor with real-world insight. We don’t just apply formulas; we analyze how markets, cash flows, and capital structures interact to drive value for family businesses. We understand that “value” means more than numbers — it includes stewardship, trust, and alignment. Our educational and decision-making tools are the product of over 40 years of experience working with successful enterprising families across a wide range of industries.
Typical engagements for our team include shareholder education and alignment, performance benchmarking, dividend policy consulting, designing shareholder liquidity programs, providing strategic valuation advisory services, evaluating capital budgeting frameworks, and assessing M&A strategies and opportunities. We help translate financial questions into strategic frameworks that support clarity, comprehension, alignment, and continuity for both the business and the family.
Key Contacts
Blog
Family Business Director Blog
Corporate Finance & Planning Insights for Multi-Generational Family Businesses
What Buy-Sell Agreements Reveal About Shareholder Priorities
Buy-sell agreements in family businesses do more than govern ownership transitions. They reflect shareholder priorities around liquidity, control, and fairness, often based on assumptions that may no longer apply. When those priorities change but the agreement does not, even ordinary events can create friction. For directors, revisiting these agreements is a matter of alignment, not flaw-finding.
Being Ready for an Unsolicited Offer
Preparedness is often mistaken for “getting ready to sell.” In reality, it is a governance discipline, one that gives families clarity about what the business means to them, how decisions will be made under pressure, and whether opportunities will be evaluated thoughtfully rather than reactively.
Family Business Whitepaper Library
Our Family Business Whitepaper Library brings together practical insights on the financial and governance issues most critical to family-owned businesses. Drawing on real-world advisory experience, these resources help business owners, boards, and executives better understand capital structure, capital allocation, performance measurement, and shareholder-related issues.
WHITEPAPER | Basics of Financial Statement Analysis
Football coaching legend Bill Parcells famously said, “You are what your record says you are.” Adapting that thought to the corporate world, one could say, “Your company is what its financial statements say it is.”Although we would not deny that there are important non-financial considerations in business, the remark strikes close enough to the truth to underscore the importance of being able to read financial statements.Accounting is the language of business, and financial statements are the primary texts to be mastered.Corporate directors need to be able to read financial statements to discharge their fiduciary duty to shareholders effectively.The ability to analyze financial statements gives shareholders the confidence to independently assess the company’s performance and the effectiveness of management’s stewardship of shareholder resources.The purpose of this whitepaper is to help readers develop an understanding of the basic contours of the three principal financial statements.The balance sheet, income statement, and statement of cash flows are each indispensable components of the “story” that the financial statements tell about a company.After reviewing each statement, we explain how the different statements relate to one another.Finally, we provide some guidance on how to evaluate projected financial statements.
WHITEPAPER | Capital Budgeting in 30 Minutes
Switching costs for capital investment are high and do-overs are expensive. A capital project is simply any use of the family business’s capital resources in the present with a view toward earning a return on that investment over time, and may take the form of acquisitions, capital expenditures, research & development, or other investments. Net present value and internal rate of return are the two primary tools used to determine whether the forecasted marginal cash flows are sufficient to justify the proposed project. However, a healthy capital budgeting process goes beyond mere financial feasibility to address the proposed project’s “fit” within the overall corporate strategy. The purpose of this whitepaper is to assist directors in evaluating proposed capital projects and contributing to capital budgeting decisions that enhance value.This whitepaper is the third in the “Corporate Finance in 30 Minutes Series.” Learn more about the whitepaper series below.Corporate Finance in 30 MinutesIn this whitepaper, we distill the fundamental principles of corporate finance into an accessible and non-technical primer.Capital Structure in 30 MinutesThrough this whitepaper, we equip directors to contribute to capital structure decisions that promote the financial health and sustainability of the family business.Capital Budgeting in 30 MinutesCapital Budgeting in 30Minutesassists directors in evaluating proposed capital projects and contributing to capital budgeting decisions that enhance value.Dividend Policy in 30 MinutesFrom the perspective of family shareholders, dividend policy is the most transparent element of corporate finance. This whitepaper helps family business directors formulate and communicate a dividend policy that contributes to family shareholder wealth and satisfaction.
WHITEPAPER | Capital Structure in 30 Minutes
Capital structure decisions have long-term consequences for shareholders. Family business directors evaluate capital structure with an eye toward identifying the financing mix that minimizes the weighted average cost of capital. This decision is complicated by the iterative nature of capital costs: the financing mix influences the cost of the different financing sources. While the nominal cost of debt is always less than the nominal cost of equity, the relevant consideration for directors is the marginal cost of debt and equity, which measures the impact of a given financing decision on the overall cost of capital. The purpose of this whitepaper is to equip directors to contribute to capital structure decisions that promote the financial health and sustainability of the family business. This whitepaper is the second in the “Corporate Finance in 30 Minutes Series.” Learn more about the whitepaper series below.Corporate Finance in 30 MinutesIn this whitepaper, we distill the fundamental principles of corporate finance into an accessible and non-technical primer.Capital Structure in 30 MinutesThrough this whitepaper, we equip directors to contribute to capital structure decisions that promote the financial health and sustainability of the family business.Capital Budgeting in 30 MinutesCapital Budgeting in 30Minutesassists directors in evaluating proposed capital projects and contributing to capital budgeting decisions that enhance value.Dividend Policy in 30 MinutesFrom the perspective of family shareholders, dividend policy is the most transparent element of corporate finance. This whitepaper helps family business directors formulate and communicate a dividend policy that contributes to family shareholder wealth and satisfaction.
WHITEPAPER | Corporate Finance in 30 Minutes
Corporate finance does not need to be a mystery.In this whitepaper, we distill the fundamental principles of corporate finance into an accessible and non-technical primer.Structured around the three key decisions of capital structure, capital budgeting, and dividend policy, the guide is designed to assist family business directors and shareholders without a finance background make relevant and meaningful contributions to the most consequential financial decisions all companies must make.Our goal with this whitepaper is to give family business directors and shareholders a vocabulary and conceptual framework for thinking about strategic corporate finance decisions, allowing them to bring their perspectives and expertise to the discussion.This whitepaper is the first in the "Corporate Finance in 30 Minutes Series." Continue reading the whitepaper series below.Capital Structure in 30 MinutesThrough this whitepaper, we equip directors to contribute to capital structure decisions that promote the financial health and sustainability of the family business.Capital Budgeting in 30 MinutesCapital Budgeting in 30Minutesassists directors in evaluating proposed capital projects and contributing to capital budgeting decisions that enhance value.Dividend Policy in 30 MinutesFrom the perspective of family shareholders, dividend policy is the most transparent element of corporate finance. This whitepaper helps family business directors formulate and communicate a dividend policy that contributes to family shareholder wealth and satisfaction.
WHITEPAPER | Dividend Policy in 30 Minutes
From the perspective of family shareholders, dividend policy is the most transparent element of corporate finance. Dividend policy addresses both how much cash flow should be distributed to shareholders and the ideal form of such distributions. In the context of a family business’s life cycle, directors can use dividend policy to manage the company’s capital structure and tailor the form of returns to better match family shareholder preferences. Diverse shareholder preferences and characteristics can enhance the attractiveness of share repurchases relative to dividends; however, executing share repurchases for family businesses bring its own set of considerations and challenges. The purpose of this whitepaper is to help family business directors formulate and communicate a dividend policy that contributes to family shareholder wealth and satisfaction. This whitepaper is the fourth in the “Corporate Finance in 30 Minutes Series.” Learn more about the whitepaper series below.Corporate Finance in 30 MinutesIn this whitepaper, we distill the fundamental principles of corporate finance into an accessible and non-technical primer.Capital Structure in 30 MinutesThrough this whitepaper, we equip directors to contribute to capital structure decisions that promote the financial health and sustainability of the family business.Capital Budgeting in 30 MinutesCapital Budgeting in 30Minutesassists directors in evaluating proposed capital projects and contributing to capital budgeting decisions that enhance value.Dividend Policy in 30 MinutesFrom the perspective of family shareholders, dividend policy is the most transparent element of corporate finance. This whitepaper helps family business directors formulate and communicate a dividend policy that contributes to family shareholder wealth and satisfaction.
WHITEPAPER | Financial Basics for Family Business: A Roadmap for Directors and Shareholders
Effective communication between management and shareholders is a key component of the long-term sustainability and success of any family business. The cornerstone of a thoughtful and effective shareholder relations program is education.Apart from a shared vocabulary and understanding of basic corporate finance concepts, family business managers will struggle to communicate the company's strategy and financial results to shareholders clearly.We have combined these whitepapers to help family businesses make strategic financial decisions and communicate those decisions to their shareholders.
WHITEPAPER | How to Communicate Financial Results to Family Shareholders
Suppose that your exposure to the French language consists of two years of high school classes twenty-five years ago. Imagine how frustrating it would be if suddenly the only news outlet available to you was Le Monde. With no small effort on your part, there’s a good chance you would be able to discern the broad outlines of the day’s events, but the odds of misunderstanding a key part of the story would be high, and any subtleties or nuance in the writing would be totally lost on you.That is likely how many of your family shareholders feel when it comes to comprehending the financial results of your family business. Perhaps they took an accounting course at some point in their lives. Or simply by virtue of having grown up around the family business, they have developed a vague sense of the differences between revenue and equity, or assets and expenses. As a result, when they read a financial report, they are generally able to discern the broad outlines of performance for the year or quarter, but the odds of misunderstanding a key part of the story are high, and any subtleties or nuance beyond the most rudimentary data are likely to pass them by.Everyone agrees that communication promotes positive shareholder engagement, but what does it look like to communicate financial results effectively? In this whitepaper, we offer practical suggestions for presenting key financial data in ways that family shareholders find useful.
WHITEPAPER | What Family Business Owners and Advisors Need to Know About Valuation
Family business advisors help companies and leaders navigate a wide range of business and family challenges, ranging from corporate governance to succession planning to family relationship dynamics and all points in between. Over the past several years, many of the family business advisors we have met have expressed a desire to better understand the intersection between business valuation and the family business advisory services they provide. We have written this whitepaper to help fill in that gap. The whitepaper is organized in four sections, each of which seek to answer a specific question about valuation.
Research
The 2025 Family Business Benchmarking Study
Mercer Capital's 2025 Family Business Benchmarking Study offers insights into how real family businesses manage key financial areas like capital investment, debt, and shareholder distributions. Drawing from our internal client data, the study emphasizes practical comparability over volume. Each section combines data and analysis to help directors make informed strategic decisions.
Book
12 Questions That Keep Family Business Directors Awake at Night
The intersection of family and business generates a unique set of questions for family business directors. We’ve culled through our years of experience working with family businesses of every shape and size to identify the twelve questions that are most likely to trigger sleepless nights for directors. 12 Questions That Keep Family Business Directors Awake at Night summarizes some of our thoughts, experiences, and insights around each question and suggests possible next steps.