Our experience allows us to offer, among others, the following services:
- Family protocols and agreements
- Succession planning
- Business group restructuring
- Corporate conflicts between members of the same family and dispute between shareholders
- Internationalization of the company or group of companies
- Tax advice with tax planning of the business and the family members
- Mergers and acquisitions, which includes the follow-up of the family assets sale or the acquisition of new assets
- Remuneration policy and employment agreements of the family members rendering their services to the family business.
Specific advice to family businesses requires the professional coordination of the different departments of our Firm, among others: Corporate, Commercial and Tax. We cannot forget that family businesses usually are companies and must face the same difficulties as such companies, but they also have certain peculiarities that require special attention, such as the joining of new shareholders to the company (either members of the family or third parties), succession or disposal acts on key assets of the family equity.
It is particularly important the incorporation of family members in the Management of the family business, including the decision on their involvement in the managing decisions. In this regard, the Shareholders’ Agreement/Family Protocol becomes an essential tool to insure a balance access of all family branches to such positions. Additionally, such agreements usually establish the minimum training required to access managing positions and the remuneration framework conditions, etc.
Furthermore, succession in the family business and its possible tax impact is a fundamental aspect to be analyzed and foreseen duly in advance. A correct equity structuring allows optimizing the costs relating to succession and its consequences in the family relations.
Finally, it is fundamental to establish an efficient conflict management policy, whereby the family business interest must prevail over the particular interests of its members.