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Family Businesses

Re­gard­less of their size, fa­mily busi­nes­ses have ent­irely dif­fe­rent struc­tures from ma­na­ger-ope­ra­ted cor­po­rate groups. The core of any fa­mily busi­ness is al­ways the ow­ner, whe­ther ex­er­cising in­flu­ence as a ma­na­ger, on the board, or at the share­hol­ders’ mee­ting. This is the per­son the em­ployees look to. He or she gi­ves a com­pany its cor­po­rate phi­lo­so­phy. That’s why every fa­mily busi­ness is uni­que. Pro­ces­ses, struc­tures and cor­po­rate cul­tures are as in­di­vi­dual as the ow­ner fa­mi­lies them­sel­ves.

This pres­ents a ma­jor chal­lenge for con­sul­ting firms. The only com­pa­nies that sur­vive here are those that al­low for the in­di­vi­dua­lity of their part­ners and em­ployees. Busi­ness ow­ners and con­sul­tants need to speak the same lan­guage. The ad­vi­sors we pro­vide you with need to have per­so­na­li­ties as di­verse as those of the busi­ness ow­ners them­sel­ves.

On­go­ing per­so­nal con­tact with the busi­ness ow­ner and ma­nage­ment is the ba­sis for com­mu­ni­ca­ting about weak points, po­ten­tial im­pro­ve­ments, or con­stant re­gu­latory chan­ges – un­der­stan­da­bly and one-to-one.

In ad­di­tion to on­go­ing areas of con­sul­ting on ma­nage­ment, ta­xes, and law, fa­mily busi­nes­ses have a par­ti­cu­lar con­cern with cor­po­rate suc­ces­sion, which must be de­ci­ded sen­si­tively and pro­fes­sio­nally in terms of both de­fi­ning suc­ces­sion in ad­vance and in draf­ting wills, so as to safe­guard the com­pany’s con­ti­nued exis­tence with long-term, ba­lan­ced so­lu­ti­ons.

Eb­ner Stolz sets a high prio­rity on its part­ners’ and em­ployees’ in­di­vi­dua­lity. Our cor­po­rate phi­lo­so­phy is ba­sed on iden­ti­fy­ing with our cli­ents’ needs and ma­king every ef­fort to as­sist them. That me­ans we can find the right con­tact per­son for your fa­mily busi­ness. So­meone who – like you – can fully iden­tify with your com­pany and give their all for it.

Our services at a glance

  • Struc­tu­ring and im­ple­men­ting ap­pro­priate cor­po­rate go­ver­nance, ta­king due ac­count of the va­rious sta­ke­hol­ders’ in­te­rests (e.g., by set­ting up ad­vi­sory boards, share­hol­ders’ com­mit­tees and su­per­vi­sory boards, re­lia­ble part­nership agree­ments and by-laws).
  • Ques­ti­ons of em­ployee re­pre­sen­ta­tion law (ge­ne­ral and group em­ployee coun­cil) and ques­ti­ons of em­ployee co-de­ter­mi­na­tion
  • Le­gal and tax ad­vice on suc­ces­sion and de­fi­ning suc­ces­sion in ad­vance, al­lo­wing for a fair ba­lan­cing of suc­ces­sors’ in­te­rests and of ma­nage­ment struc­tures wi­thin the com­pany (e.g., th­rough us­uf­ruct mo­dels, fa­mily hol­ding com­pa­nies, se­pa­ra­tion of busi­ness as­sets from pri­vate as­sets, avo­idance of risks from split-ups into in­ter­lo­cking ow­ner and ope­ra­tor busi­nes­ses)
  • Im­ple­men­ta­tion of fa­mily con­sti­tu­ti­ons
  • Mo­de­ra­ting dif­fe­ren­ces of opi­nion and change pro­ces­ses bet­ween ge­ne­ra­ti­ons and bran­ches of ow­ner fa­mi­lies, and bet­ween dif­fe­rent bo­dies (es­pe­cially ma­nage­ment and share­hol­ders’ mee­ting)
  • Brin­ging terms of wills and ma­rital pro­perty ar­ran­ge­ments into line with re­qui­re­ments of foun­ding do­cu­ments (e.g., clau­ses in pre- and post-nup­tial agree­ments, li­mited group of ap­pro­ved ow­ners)
  • Per­for­ming func­tions of an ad­vi­sory board or su­per­vi­sory board, pro­bate of wills
  • Ad­vi­sing on as­set struc­tu­ring ap­pro­priate for risk
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