Family Governance and Advisory

You have worked hard to build your business and grow your wealth. Protecting this will be paramount to leaving a legacy for you to enjoy in retirement and for your family to enjoy through the ages.

Family governance at its simplest is the way in which your family communicates around wealth and business. It also builds the principles by which decision making and problem solving occurs.

Whilst many families may have no formal family governance in place, there is no doubt there is a set of “unwritten rules” that is followed that everyone knows about.

The process of transferring those unwritten rules into a written set of guiding principles and decision making is key to the art of building your family governance.

Without formalising your family governance, it may be difficult to achieve the same impact with your legacy and family disagreements may arise. It gives everyone an opportunity to be part of growing your legacy.

Formalising the family governance structure helps families unite and work together successfully throughout successive generations.

Setting and regularly reviewing the family governance structure sooner rather than later has many benefits. In particular it ensures that changes can be decided with clarity and implemented with minimal family upheaval. It helps future-proof the family’s business and wealth from negative impacts of catastrophic events such as losing a key family member.

Tax LF can help you formulate and review your family governance structure and support you in the process of managing your wealth and your business today and for future generations.

Managing the interaction between the owner, the family and employees can be a juggle. With the balance changing through the lifecycle of your business is it critical to understand how they fit together and where the tensions are likely to arise.

Owners —

As an owner, overtime you may move from being all things to being a passive business owner. You need a framework in place that grows with you and builds your legacy.

Family —

Over time the family dynamic changes and involvement may increase or decrease. Differences in education, skills and talent also arise. Creating family rules that minimise the expectation gap will reduce tension and improve cohesiveness.

Employees —

When active businesses are involved, the success of the business will be driven by the key employees involved. These may also be family members and/or owners. Ensuring the right incentives are in place to grow the business will see your legacy realised.