Welcome to the first edition of the Family Ties^® e-letter brought to you by Pervin Family Business Advisors Inc. If you were a previous subscriber to Family Ties^® (last published in August 2001) we're finally back! You can now look forward to receiving, on a regular basis, this e-letter with interesting articles and other items relevant to family businesses.

If you have a question, a great idea for inclusion in this e-letter, or if you just have some comments you would like to share with us, we want to hear from you!

Wise and pragmatic habits of successful business families...

Habit #1.
Articulate a clear, compelling and sustainable vision, philosophy, strategy, set of values, beliefs, purpose and commitment statement for family, business, owners and wealth.

For your reading pleasure...

THE NEW BUSINESS FAMILY
At a family wedding, a few years ago, I had the extreme pleasure of meeting a cousin I had not seen in more than 40 years. Two experiences deserve mention here. First, she remarked that my eldest son was acting in a similar fashion (read: a little wild) to how she remembered me at 10 years of age. Second, she and her husband described how their family business failed in 1983.

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SPINNING WHEELS IN A TENURED TRACK
"His project is complete." The words echoed ominously through the family business's meeting room. Up for discussion was the return of the owners' cousin, a shareholder shuffled into a project with one major objective: to keep him out of day-to-day operations where he had proved adept at bringing about emotional turmoil, low morale and financial loss.

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Thoughts of the day...

Just because you're family doesn't mean you shouldn't get it in writing.  – heard on the street

The only difference between a taxman and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin.  – Mark Twain

In the media...

IS YOUR CROWN PASSABLE?
Most CEOs running fast-growing privately held companies plan to step down within a decade, but nearly half of them admit to having put little or no thought into succession planning, according to a new survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

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'SENIORPRENEURS' LACK PLAN TO EXIT BUSINESS, STUDY SAYS
About $1.2-trillion in small-business assets will change hands between now and 2010 as a massive wave of aging entrepreneurs retires, but few of them are ready for the shift, in terms of either succession planning or retirement savings, a new study suggests.

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Did you know...

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