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Business brokerage services are critically important to the liquidity of small business ownership, business growth, and related jobs preservation and creation. Baby boomers are faced with the prospects of either selling or closing their businesses to retire. Small business owners need and rely upon the professional services of merger and acquisition intermediaries, advisors, and business brokers (together, “M&A brokers”) to advise about and assist with the sale of privately owned businesses.

Family offices are complicated because of the scope of services they deliver, the high number and complexity of entities they oversee and the staff they must manage. These complexities can open the door to liability. Employing consistent policies and procedures, establishing an annual entity review process, maximizing protection provided by indemnification and buying insurance are all tools to help manage the risks associated with management and professional liability.

One of the things we’ve learned is that a family contract can be a valuable tool to help families build trust and avoid conflicts. We’ve also found that for a contract to work well, everyone who signs the contract should have a say in how the contract is written. That doesn’t mean you will get everything you want and, as you probably expect, your parents still have the final say on family rules.

Information security in the family office context needs to a collaborative effort between the family, the office, and any intertwined vendors. This article from Plante Moran’s IT security consulting group discusses key factors in improving the security of the family office’s confidential information.

Many business managers include arbitration provisions in their companies’ contracts. The prevailing philosophy being that arbitration is preferable to traditional litigation via the court system because it’s private, speedier and less expensive. Under certain circumstances, however, a party may prefer to litigate a particular dispute in court even though it previously included an arbitration provision in the relevant contract. Smart Business spoke with Liebman about choosing traditional litigation despite the existence of an arbitration provision.

“Internet message boards and review sites provide a venue where users- customers and pretenders alike- can offer anonymous evaluations and judgments about restaurants, hotels, medical and legal professionals and businesses," says Mitchell L. Marinello, a partner with Novack and Macey LLP. "Unfortunately, sometimes these reviews cross the boundary between mere opinion and defamation." When they do, they can cause great damage, because they can linger on the Internet for years. But if a company is the victim of internet defamation, it has remedies.

If your organization still doesn't have a social media policy, it is time to create one. "Every organization should have a social media policy that enables it to optimize the opportunities that interactive social media sites present while minimizing the attendant risks," says Kristen Werries Collier, a partner with Novack and Macey ILP. Smart Business spoke with Collier about those risks and how to develop a workable policy to minimize your exposure.