Our advisors recommended adopting "Best Practices" for family business, which included establishing a board of advisors and a family council. We started this journey in 2013, shortly after purchasing the company. One of our new board members had personal experience managing his own family business, so we turned to him for guidance to kick things off. After reviewing various topics and resources, we decided to begin with the help of a facilitator. However, even with that support, our start was not as smooth as we had hoped.

Are you thinking about holding family meetings? Perhaps your financial advisor suggested it, or you’ve heard about other families that have found them beneficial. While getting started may seem straightforward, it's important to understand their value, how to conduct them, and the benefits they offer. In our experience, initiating family meetings has significantly improved our lives.

From our first family council meeting, we encouraged our boys to ask the tough questions. How much do you make? How much is the company worth? What will I inherit? These were all questions we thought they would ask. However, the most important question on their mind was…if something happened to dad, who would run the company? No longer were we having adult to child conversations, rather an adult to adult relationship was beginning to develop.

Congratulations, you have decided to form a Family Council, now what? Did the members get their position because they were family; they showed an interest; or were they selected based on predefined core competencies? Although you may now be second guessing your choices, I can tell you there is no right or wrong answer. In our case we only have first and second generation members because there isn’t anyone else. No spouses or significant others much less third generation kiddies. It didn’t, however, prevent us from determining what family council members core competencies should look like; what development activities should be considered in achieving the competencies; what on-boarding would look like for future members.