Family-owned Businesses

Family Business: It’s Complicated

Whenever family and business intersect, there are bound to be challenges. Helping closely held businesses is an area of specialty within our practice. We thrive on helping family businesses navigate through complicated planning issues.

We helped start the Kansas Family Business Forum out of Wichita State University in 1993, a program that is going strong to this day. Over 40 family businesses participate in an educational-based forum to address topics surrounding family business.

“Working with family businesses is half art, half science. You have to understand the technical aspects of the challenges businesses face. You also need a strong grasp on the emotional dynamics of working with family.”

Here are some of the challenges we commonly encounter, and help our clients address:

Questions Of Ownership And Succession

Some family members may be a part of the business. Some may not. Key management may or may not be family members, and may or may not have ownership. How do you determine how to pass along value to participating and non-participating family members? Does it make sense to sell?

We Can Help

Over the years, we have developed a reputation for our expertise in working with family owned businesses.

We can assist with:

Buy-sell agreements
Retention of key employees
Deferred compensation arrangements
Estate planning strategies
Succession planning strategies

We also have a network of consultants with deep expertise in the dynamics of working with family members.