Resource Search

Leaders of founder-owned businesses likely know that the buyer universe essentially breaks down into two main categories—strategic buyers, who focus on synergies and operational integration, and financial sponsors, who emphasize cash flow generation and growth potential in the underlying market. For any founder-owner looking for an optimal outcome in a liquidity event, it’s a good idea to know your audience and its motives.

Bank failures, tighter monetary policy, and rising fear of a “hard landing” have heightened economic uncertainty. Despite these challenges, inflation is subsiding, consumer spending is stable, and the labor market remains strong. In light of the market turbulence, investors are reacting to any news, positive or negative, in search of clarity about the future.

Choosing a trustee is a major decision—one that may impact you and your family in many ways for generations to come. Essentially, when you establish a trust for the benefit of others, you are handing down your values through the terms of the trust and your contributed financial assets. And with an increasing number of trusts lasting for multiple generations—and even into perpetuity in some states—it’s important to understand the role of a trustee, how to select a trustee, and the advantages to naming both a corporate trustee and an individual trustee.

Gender equity investing seeks to invest for financial return while promoting gender diversity throughout the workplace. Though most public market strategies have remained focused on “women in leadership” metrics at the senior management and board of directors’ levels, the field of gender equity investing has expanded to encompass broader outcomes for employees, including resources, policies, and programs that support gender diversity at all levels in the workplace. As gender equity investing evolves, investors can look to three key areas to see what’s next.

While there has been an ongoing slowdown in venture capital funding for startups, the slowdown appears to be leveling and suggesting that the market may be normalizing. Furthermore, investors are still active in certain key sectors and notable trends are beginning to emerge.

Drawing examples from HBO’s hit show Succession, where the members of the wealthy Roy family each vie for control of their family-owned business, attorney Stephanie Derks of Foley & Lardner’s Estate & Trusts Practice Group joins Brian Lucareli to discuss the importance of business succession planning. In this 10-minute interview, Stephanie also offers insights and planning ideas and considerations to help family-run businesses to prepare for the day when the family can no longer run their business.

It may seem that there will always be time to address estate planning. However, a unique opportunity to maximize the amount of wealth that can be tax-efficiently passed to heirs will expire at the end of 2025. Furthermore, legislation could curb lifetime exemption limits even sooner. The opportunity is even more pressing because the current market downturn represents an especially advantageous time to optimize your taxable estate before markets eventually recover.

Many families of wealth struggle with a fundamental question: Can our wealth be sustained across generations and have a positive impact on those who use it? Through experience and research, a series of best practices for the successful transfer of multi-generational wealth has been identified to help reduce the likelihood of families succumbing to the paradigm of “shirtsleeves-to-shirtsleeves in three generations.” Families who devote time and effort to adopt the best practices will be better able to increase the 1 in 3 chance of maintaining wealth through multiple

Few problems are as vexing and seemingly impossible to resolve for families, advisors and trustees as the active alcoholic or addict, particularly those who continue to use after treatment. While low recovery rates for treatment and subsequent relapse may be understandable in the aggregate, on the individual level the experience is frustrating and unnerving for all concerned. Often the response is “treatment,” yet few family members and advisors are familiar with the success rates for treatment or what leads to sustained recovery.

How and when should wealthy parents educate their children about their assets and potential trusts? Having “The Talk” about wealth is a topic that provokes uncertainty and delay. Avoiding the exchange, however, only compounds the difficulties. Anxiety and reluctance about this conversation are understandable given the many risks associated with inherited wealth. This paper provides a few central guidelines to making "The Talk" an effective and positive experience for both generations.