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Family Business Advisory
Family Business Advisory
When the business is changing, the family needs a clear plan for what comes next.
We help family businesses work through important decisions about succession, ownership, control, and the future of the business.
You may be thinking about stepping back.
The next generation may be getting more involved.
Ownership may need to change.
Family members may have different ideas about what should happen next.
Or you may simply know that the way things have always worked will not work forever.
We help you get clear on the decisions, get the right people aligned, and build a practical path forward.
Talk With Us About Your Family BusinessDoes this sound familiar?
You may be asking:
- Who should own the business next?
- Who should run it?
- Should all of the children own the same amount?
- What if some children work in the business and others do not?
- When should the founder step back?
- How much control should the founder keep?
- What happens if one owner wants out?
- How do we make sure the family can continue making decisions together?
- Should we sell, keep growing, or pass the business down?
- What do we need to decide before we start changing legal documents?
These are not just legal questions.
They affect the business, the owners, and the family.
That is why they are often hard to solve one issue at a time.
We help families get unstuck.
Most families already have professionals around them.
You may have a CPA, estate planning attorney, financial advisor, banker, or business attorney.
They may all be doing good work.
But someone still has to help the family answer the bigger questions:
What are we trying to do?
What are we not yet agreeing on?
What needs to be decided first?
What should happen next?
That is where we help.
Family Business Succession
Succession is more than deciding who will run the company.
The family also has to decide:
- Who will own the business
- Who will control major decisions
- Who will work in the business
- How family members who do not work in the business will be treated
- When the founder will step back
- What the next generation needs to be ready
- Whether the family wants to continue owning the business at all
These decisions do not all have to happen at the same time.
But they should fit together.
We help families work through them before legal and tax planning begins driving the outcome.
Ownership and Control
One of the hardest questions in a family business is often:
Who gets to decide?
Ownership, control, management, and inheritance are not the same thing.
For example:
One child may run the business.
Another may work somewhere else.
Both may inherit ownership.
The founder may still want to keep control for a period of time.
Those choices can work.
But they should be made intentionally.
We help families decide what makes sense for their business and their family.
Family Alignment
Sometimes the problem is not the structure.
The family simply has not agreed on what it wants.
One person wants to grow.
Another wants to sell.
One child wants to take over.
Another does not want anything to do with the business.
The founder may say they want to step back but still make every major decision.
These situations are common.
We help families get the important issues on the table, understand where expectations are different, and work toward decisions everyone can act on.
What is family business advisory?
Family business advisory helps a family make decisions that affect the business, ownership, and family at the same time.
It often comes before legal, tax, financial, or financing implementation.
For example, before an attorney drafts documents to transfer the business to the next generation, the family may first need to decide:
- Who should receive ownership
- Whether ownership should be equal
- Who should control voting decisions
- Who should run the company
- What happens to family members who are not involved
- When the transfer should happen
- How an ownership transition or buyout will be funded
Once those decisions are clear, the legal, tax, financial, and financing work becomes much easier.
How We Help
Family Business Strategy Sprint
For a specific family business decision that needs to move forward.
This may involve succession, ownership, control, governance, or another major transition.
We help you:
- Clarify the real issue
- Identify the decisions that need to be made
- Get the right people involved
- Work through the available options
- Decide what should happen next
- Create a practical path forward
Already know what needs to happen?
If the family already knows the direction, Roots & Wings Legal can help with the legal implementation.
This may include ownership changes, restructurings, governance documents, transactions, and other business transition work.
If you want to see examples of the kinds of ownership transitions, restructurings, and family business matters we have handled, visit Representative Matters.
Who We Work With
We work with established family-owned and closely held businesses.
Many of our clients are in industries such as:
- Construction
- Manufacturing
- Real estate
- Logistics
- Agriculture
- Professional services
- Other closely held operating businesses
The business may still be founder-led.
Or the next generation may already be involved.
What matters is that the business has become important enough—and the family complex enough—that the decisions about what happens next deserve careful attention.
Family Business Advisory in California
Roots & Wings Legal works with business-owning families throughout California, including the San Francisco Bay Area, East Bay, Sacramento, Central Valley, and Northern California.
Many meetings can be handled virtually.
You do not need to have everything figured out.
That is usually why families come to us.
You may know something needs to change.
You may not know exactly what the answer is.
We help you figure out the questions, make the decisions, and determine what should happen next.
Talk With Us About Your Family Business