The Family Business Legacy Handbook
Families and businesses grow more complex with each generation. Keeping a family together into the fourth generation and beyond as stewards of shared wealth and business assets requires intention and planning. This book offers practical advice on the following topics for readers who aspire to sustain their family enterprise and family wealth far into the future:
- Thinking generationally
- Strengthening family bonds
- Communicating effectively
- Preventing and resolving conflict
- Defining a shared vision
- Instilling family values
- Teaching responsible ownership
- Providing liquidity for family members
- Planning ownership structures
- Adapting to address challenges
- Diversifying the family business
- Managing and preserving wealth
- Developing family talent
- Establishing effective governance
- Sharing family assets
- Cultivating stewardship
- Preparing future inheritors
- Transferring wealth successfully
- Organizing family philanthropy
Leading family business advisers and consultants share their wisdom based on decades of practice in assisting thriving multigenerational families. The insightful advice contained here spans many disciplines, including law, estate planning, wealth management, psychology, management and strategic planning, family business consulting and family office services. Also among the contributing authors are members of multigenerational family enterprises, whose recommendations stem from their own families’ real-world experience.
1. A legacy perspective
- Legacy, Legate, Legatus — David Lansky
- Seeing the forest and the trees: Defining your family legacy — Rhona E. Vogel
- A balance sheet is not a legacy — Doug Baumoel and Blair Trippe
- Legacy: The importance of family unity — Andrew Keyt
- The 10 hidden arts of successful business families — John L. Ward
- The unique calling of family-owned businesses — Wanda S. Ortwine
2. Sharing assets as a family
- Navigating the challenges of ownership vs. management — Bobby Stover
- Context conflict: Balancing family and business — Frederic J. Marx
- Beyond structure: Planning for a future—and a family—you can’t predict — Debbie Bing
- Sharing an asset requires intention, skill and practice — Richard Orlando
- Three questions family leaders should ask stakeholders — Joshua Nacht and Andrew Pitcairn
- The power of the family bank — Warner King Babcock
3. Planning the future of the business
- Managing the overlap of family and business — Andrew Keyt and Greg McCann
- Creating a family strategy — Meghan Juday
- Liquidity alternatives for family businesses — Bryant W. Seaman III
- Distributions and family financial dynamics — Frederic Floberg, Drew Mendoza and Michael Zdeb
- Is an ‘airtight’ shareholders’ agreement desirable? — Steve Salley and Judy Lin Walsh
- Transition trouble? Consider changing your ownership model — Josh Baron and Nick Di Loreto
- Diversify your family business to insulate it from risks — James B. Wood
- Real estate risks and opportunities — G. Scott Budge (in memoriam) and Geoffrey N. Irvine
4. Governing the family enterprise
- Entrepreneurial stewardship helps families manage challenges — Stuart E. Lucas and David Lansky
- Guidelines for an effective family council — Christopher J. Eckrich and Stephen L. McClure
- Gaining family business sustainability — Keith L. Alm
- A planning guide for transforming your board — Kelly LeCouvie
- The elements of good family office governance — David Lansky and Jennifer Pendergast
- Managing sibling wealth disparity — Doug Baumoel and Blair Trippe
- An ethical will is a powerful way to pass on your values — Mitzi Perdue
- The family constitution: A tool to preserve the family’s legacy — Frederick D. Lipman and Linsey B. Bozzelli
- Codes of conduct bring families together to listen — Dennis Jaffe
- How to overcome ‘prenup paralysis’ — Kirby Rosplock
5. Educating and developing family members
- Raising children in a wealthy family: Values are the foundation — Jeff Savlov
- Building a family curriculum — Charlotte Lamp
- Cultivating ownership in the next generation — Greg McCann
- Igniting engagement in the younger generation — Charlotte Lamp
- Finding balance in developing family talent — Amy Schuman and Stephanie Brun de Pontet
- How to develop a deep bench of family directors — Meghan Juday
- Preparing heirs through experiential learning — Timothy J. Belber
6. Managing your family’s wealth
- How to navigate the shift from owner to investor — Steve Thorne
- Managing the mature family enterprise for success — Stuart E. Lucas
- Led by legacy: Structuring wealth to meet family goals — Anna Nichols
- Giving wisely: The spirit of legacy — Keith Whitaker
- How trusts affect business owners’ creation of multigenerational legacies — Wallace L. Head and Kim Kamin
- Rigid trust terms are counterproductive — David A. Handler
- Trusts: How to align your intentions, documents and relationships — Gary S. Shunk
- Multiple marriage planning — Joe M. Goodman
- The challenges of family philanthropy — Jessica Geiben Lynn