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Succession and continuity planning is an essential endeavour for high-net-worth entrepreneurial families looking to safeguard their family businesses and the financial security of the next generation. This complex process must be navigated effectively to ensure that families who run businesses can continue to thrive even if their circumstances change.

Get realistic about succession

At the outset, it is important to understand the long-term intention behind the family business. If there is no natural family successor, the business will need to be set up to look beyond the current patriarch or matriarch, or be set up to sell.

Either way, important steps need to be taken while the head of the business is still alive to ensure that the full value is extracted from the business for the family, that the death of this person doesn’t destroy the business and that a situation with a potential for huge family conflict does not become that. Business strife can destroy a family and the wealth that has been so hard-earned.

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