Beating a Hasty Retreat: Using a Family Company Retreat to Improve Your Family-Owned Business

Posting by Joel C. Susco, CPA, Principal

Ah, the business retreat.  It seems to offer something fun and stress-reducing, like travelling to a beautiful, peaceful destination and partaking in some team-building games by day and cocktail parties by night.  But there are often more business-related events planned, whether or not the participants are made aware of this in advance.  Fans of the show The Office witnessed a company retreat where leadership succession was being determined by the winner in a […]

April 10, 2009 Accounting, Family Owned Businesses Read more...

Estate Tax Planning in a Family-Owned Business – Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way

Posting by Jacqueline M. Thompson, CPA

No one likes to think about death.  Except perhaps for the family-owned funeral home, but they have a very good reason for this.  Contemplating our mortality is unpleasant, and is made more complicated when our passing involves both personal assets and a family business.  You and your employees work very hard to make your family-owned business profitable; it would be a shame to lose much of this to taxes when the owner passes.  This […]

April 3, 2009 Accounting, Family Owned Businesses, Tax Read more...

Commitment of Non-Family Employees in Your Family-Owned Business

Posted in DCFBA Blog, Management | Post By Joel C. Susco, CPA, Principal

Posting by Joel C. Susco, CPA, Principal

It seems the key word in “family-owned business” is family, and for good reason.  Being part of a family and a part of the same business really ties those employees and owners who are in the family in virtually every possible way, in most or all aspects of their lives.  Being a devoted employee or manager in a family-owned business when […]

March 27, 2009 Family Owned Businesses, Human Resources Read more...

Starting a New or Saving Your Current Family-Owned Business in this Economy

Posting by Geoffrey D. Brown, CPA, Principal

Considering starting a new family-owned business, even in this economy?  Or perhaps you want your current family business to survive, or even thrive.  It seems counter-intuitive to think of starting up or growing in a recession, but there are some ways to approach these goals.

As we have seen often with our family business clients, many family-owned firms put off formalizing in writing an actual business plan, business strategy, succession plan, etc.  Although it […]

March 20, 2009 Family Owned Businesses Read more...

Family Business Financing Methods and Favorable Capital Gains Rates

Posting by Joel C. Susco, CPA

It has been a very busy few years.  Our firm has had the opportunity to participate in a number of interesting transactions involving the transfer of an ownership interest in a variety of entities.  The need and desire to maintain the viability of an entity and continual existence is on the forefront of every owner’s mind.  It is critical that a well-structured and properly-executed agreement be drafted.  In some instances, the need for adequate […]

March 13, 2009 Family Owned Businesses, Tax Read more...

Family Business Planning Begins at an Early Age

Posting by Jacqueline M. Thompson, CPA

There was an interesting article dealing with the education of family members in a family owned business in the August 2008 issue of Trusts & Estates (“Fostering Independence”). In it, a manager of a family office and a family business consultant discuss how a particular family business has structured their educational program. As a financial family, they have broken their family members into five groups: 10 Children under the age of 16; 2) Family […]

March 6, 2009 Family Owned Businesses Read more...

World Economic Crisis Not Just U.S.; Small Family Businesses Find Help From Small Banks

Posting by Geoffrey D. Brown, CPA, Principal

I recently returned from the Family Firm Institute annual conference in London, where we had a chance to hear John Micklethwait, the Editor-in-Chief of The Economist magazine, speak about the state of the global economy. It would seem to me that despite our economic woes here at home, that the rest of the world, particularly emerging markets, is in much worse shape.

On another economic note, while in London, a Brit was telling me […]

January 23, 2009 Family Owned Businesses Read more...