Liquidity Planning for Family Business OwnersLiquidity Planning for Family Business Owners

Depending on your perspective, certain statistics can be either depressing or instructive; a glass half-empty/half-full kind of thing. Well, consider these: While nearly 80 percent of family business owners want to pass their business to the next generation, only about a third of family businesses make it through the second generation. By the end of the third generation, only 12 percent will be family-controlled, shrinking to 3 percent at the fourth generation and beyond. The remaining family businesses either go out of business or are sold.¹ While there are many potential reasons for the disconnect between what family businesses want (continued family control) and what typically happens (failure of continued family control), one of the ...