Family Office & Family Business Insights
Big Canyon Advisors shares perspectives drawn from decades of advising families, family offices, and family enterprises across generations. Our insights address the practical challenges families face as wealth, ownership, and complexity increase, such as governance, succession, decision-making, and long-term stewardship.
When should a family member join the family business? Explore readiness, expectations, and the role of family employment policies.
Understand how strategic plans and business plans differ, and why both matter for guiding growth, governance, and long-term success in family enterprises.
What is the difference between family governance and business governance? Learn why separating the two is essential for long-term success in family businesses.
Why We Need Family Meetings
A family office embedded in the business can be cost-effective & manage risks to the family. Here is how to manage some challenges of an embedded office.
Is your family office successful? Learn how to evaluate family office performance, define meaningful success metrics, and identify signs that may warrant an independent review.
Families considering a family office must weigh complexity, cost, and control. This article explores when forming a family office makes sense and when it doesn’t.
Why Should I Allow an Outsider to Review my Family Office?
Over the years, I've really enjoyed working with the various people at Family Business Magazine, and am honored to have another article published in the current edition. I've had many questions over the last few years about how family businesses should make distributions to owners, and I finally wrote my thoughts on the topic. Being thoughtful on this topic, involving the various family owners in documenting philosophy and approach, can go a long way toward building family harmony. I hope you enjoy this article. Please reach out about creating a vision and strategic plan to support your legacy.
One of our family business clients recently asked for a benchmark or assistance in setting an amount for charitable giving from the business. What a great question! The challenge is that family businesses have such different goals, values and approaches; it is difficult to compare them to each other. Most family businesses are at least doing nominal charitable giving, such as sponsoring youth sports and local schools or perhaps in-kind donations of whatever product or service they provide. Many family businesses do this without tracking them or even much thought. When it comes to larger donations, businesses have to think about why they are making them. Some businesses make donations as public relations, perhaps instead of advertising and marketing. These businesses may have larger donation budgets than others, as it combines marketing with charitable desires. Some businesses make very few donations, explaining that they distribute money to owners and encourage them to donate personally. A few family businesses we know have used the Biblical-tithe as a rule, giving a tenth of their net income, either donating in-year or perhaps setting up a foundation or donor-advised fund. Some businesses set a fixed amount annually, based perhaps on what they did in the past or a number that “feels” right. Other businesses choose to make donations in particularly good years, or perhaps when they sell a line of business or a particular property. One conversation we’ve held many times is about how important it is to ensure that donations from the business match the family’s shared values while ensuring they support (or at least do not detract from) the business’ goals. In other words, if a donation could lead to bad social media or alienate groups of customers, or if perhaps the recipient organization only matches the values of a subset of owners, then the business should not make the donation. Focus on where the family and its values are in alignment, and ignore the areas where they disagree. None of this musing answers our client’s question about how much they should budget for charity each year. We would love to hear from you on benchmarking charitable giving – how has your family business set amounts for such donations? Please reach out about creating a vision and strategic plan to support your legacy.
