The Role of the Family Office in Business SuccessionThe Role of the Family Office in Business Succession

The statistics aren’t pretty. Only a little more than 30 percent of family businesses survive into the second generation, even though 80 percent would like to keep the business in the family. By the third generation, only 12 percent will still be viable, shrinking to 3 percent at the fourth generation and beyond.¹ The disconnect between what 80 percent of families intend and the far bleaker reality can in part be attributed to a failure to plan for the family dynamics issues involved in family business succession.² 

In “Correlates of Success in Family Business Transitions,”³ the authors of the study found a consistent pattern of factors that led to breakdowns in the succession process. Sixty percent of succession plans failed because of p...