• Family Business Practice
• Other PG Lore articles

Earlier this year we held what we hope will be the first of many Family Business Forums. It was attended by nine family members from a range of second to fifth generation family businesses. Three different family members attended from one business.

We started with a sandwich lunch and ended with an early evening drink, well earned after an afternoon of very interactive, enlightening and helpful discussion.

The discussion focussed on

• ownership structures (including placing shares in trust)
• ownership and management succession (involving a case study) and
• family business governance.

From the very positive feedback it is apparent that:

• some family businesses do not always have many opportunities to talk to other family businesses and so really appreciated the chance to talk to "like minded people"
• those family businesses which had not yet crossed various hurdles (for example, putting certain governance structures in place) appreciated learning from the practical experiences of those who had.

Much of the success was down to the willingness of the different families to share experiences and quiz one another business to business and generation to generation.

Our objective was to provide an opportunity for family businesses to meet other family businesses in a confidential and convivial setting and to learn how some of the challenges facing family businesses are best addressed. The feedback suggests that that is exactly what we achieved.

The Forums are open to members of a family owning a family business whether or not employed in the business, as well as to non-family executives in family businesses. We tailor the forums to the interests of the families attending having first sounded them out on what they would like to discuss.

The full range of subjects includes

• ownership structures in family businesses (including placing shares in trust)
• family business governance
• family charters
• ownership and management succession
• protecting against the impact of divorce
• extracting wealth from the family business
• valuing shares in the family business
• selling or reorganizing the family business.

We plan to host the next forum in the Autumn and would be delighted to hear from you if you would like to attend. Indicating what subjects would be of interest will help us ensure that the session is tailored to your particular needs.

If you would like to take part in the next or future Family Business Forums please contact Andrew Drake [email protected] 020 7591 3352

Andrew Drake
Family Business Practice
email [email protected]
tel 020 7591 3352

Other PG Lore articles