It is seven years since the second edition of this STEP guide, published by Globe Law and Business, appeared, and this updated third edition is both welcome and timely. The world has seen a series of dramatic events, not to mention crises, during this interval and the landscape for families of means has changed accordingly. Arguably the most significant long-term trend now gathering momentum is the tsunami of wealth that will cascade in the next two decades: trillions of dollars-worth of assets will be transferred between the generations. To prepare themselves, both advisers and families themselves will benefit from being fully-informed of all aspects of managing and advising on legacy wealth, and this guide makes an excellent place to start.
Like its predecessor, this volume features contributions from practitioners who are leaders in their many fields. Their expertise covers up-to-date practice in sectors such as wealth management, the formation of trusts, tax planning, the sale of businesses to third parties and other transfers of ownership. The commentary of experts across the Anglosphere, where legal systems derive from English common law, provides a useful spectrum of views. This new edition, however, goes beyond the merely technical. There is a greater breadth of expertise brought to bear on the less tangible – but equally important - issues that families grapple with: succession planning, as you might expect, but also governance, the resolution of disputes, inter-personal dynamics and the creation of the processes and structures that help to lubricate the sometimes tricky intersections of family, business and ownership. The contributions covering newer academic thinking on family business and consultancy interventions are particularly illuminating for anyone seeking to understand how thought leadership in this field has developed. And the section on family philanthropy, something which is undergoing radical re-imagining, is extremely pertinent to an appreciation of next-generation attitudes to giving.
I have found the second edition of Business Families and Family Businesses invaluable in my own work in this field. The third edition will be even more so.
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