Every Family’s Business
12 Common Sense Questions Could Save Your Family
Forever change the future of your family business
Every Family’s Business challenges the idea that successful family businesses must keep family issues and business issues separate. Tom believes this separation is impossible and that most family businesses are set up from the beginning to fail because they attempt it.
Tom offers a compelling argument for why families should be clear about when they will sell the business and to whom. Families that are upfront and realistic about their goals for transitioning ownership of the business can avoid jealousy, sibling rivalry and regrettable inter-family lawsuits.
Tom has designed the 12 Common Sense Questions offered in Every Family’s Business to start a conversation among family members with the view of protecting wealth and relationships.
A succession plan must be more than naming a beneficiary; it must be a thoughtful, well-communicated plan.
Owners who maintain ownership control of their businesses while delegating management to someone else, whether family or professional managers, assume extraordinary risks.
When a business owner dies and gifts his or her shares to a surviving spouse or children without having a detailed conversation about who will own what and how, family discord and wealth destruction are almost guaranteed.
If no plan is in place, feuding siblings, parent-child estrangement and disgruntled professional managers will continue to make litigation lawyers the only beneficiary of broken family business dreams.
Abandon the concept of “gifting” your business and replace it with clarity about who will buy your business. Every Family’s Business gives owners permission to sell their businesses to their children – or anyone else.
Struggle, risk, failure and adapting to change are what distinguish business owners from employees. Businesses gifted to the next generation, who have risked nothing, will ultimately join the 70% of businesses that fail when passed to the second generation.
Willing Wisdom
7 Questions That Will Profoundly Change Your Life
How you leave your money and possessions is as important as what you leave.
A staggering 50% of North Americans have no will. For those who do, most wills remain badly outdated. Dying without a will can leave a legacy of chaos and anger for those who matter most.
Willing Wisdom is the first book to offer you a process — 7 Questions to ask, family, friends and charities to help guide giving-decisions. For those who already have a Will, the book helps readers confirm whether their giving decisions continue to feel right.
The answers to these 7 Questions reveal whether gifts will release potential or destroy it. Only through conversation and the wisdom shared in both directions can anyone begin to know how it will be for their beneficiaries.
In a busy world where conversations about life, death and wealth are often avoided, Willing Wisdom confidently guides readers in a brave new direction.
The idea of drafting a will in collaboration with beneficiaries and sharing intentions will be challenging for many readers. It is precisely this simple idea that makes Willing Wisdom both a refreshing, important but controversial book.
Learn your Willing Wisdom Index™ Score
How prepared is your family to manage your health and inherit your wealth?
The Willing Wisdom Index™ is a 9-15 minute questionnaire that was developed using a quantitative and qualitative survey of individuals and financial advisors in eight countries on four continents over a ten year period. The Willing Wisdom Index™ uses correlation and regression analysis to generate your one-of-a-kind personalized report.
The Willing Wisdom Index™ measures your family’s performance in six critical areas:
- Health Care
- Taxes
- Litigation
- Communication
- Planning
6. Governance
