A practical guide to best and worst practices for family businesses - from drawing up incorporation documents to succession planning to selling the business. The book also includes examples from actual court cases and presents these lessons in an accessible manner. Sample legal agreements are included which help to avoid some of the major risks to the family business.

"The Family Business Guide takes the mystery out of some of the most important, yet rarely faced family business 'hot spots' - wills, pre-nups, compensation, employee agreements, shareholder agreements, and more. Keep this book nearby: It is both a clear guide to several once-in-a-lifetime decisions (i.e., selling the business, facing a financial crisis, planning your estate), but also a great, regular reminder of practical, everyday best (and worst) practices." - John L. Ward, Kellogg Professor and Principal of The Family Business Consulting Group

"This is a very practical book for every family business. It doesn't matter if you have been in existence for a year or 1,000 years. The author gives great examples of best and worst practices that you can examine compared to what you are doing in your business today. Everyone will learn something from this book, from seasoned professionals to those just starting out." - Phil Clemens, Chairman/CEO of Clemens Family Corporation

"Fred Lipman and his partners represented my 92 year old family business. Fred, a lawyer's lawyer, has a unique gift of explaining and solving complex issues. His book contains state of the art thinking about family business strategies as well as valuable family legal agreement forms." - Larry H. Colin, co-author of Family, Inc. and lecturer on family business

Autorentext
Frederick Lipman is an attorney who has been in practice for more than 40 years and is the author of 12 books, including International and U.S. IPO Planning (2009).

Inhalt
Succession Planning * Family Employee Agreements and Shareholder Agreements * Governance Structures For Family Businesses * Worst Practices: What We Can Learn From Family Disasters * Compensating Family Members * Creating Phantom Equity Incentives for Key Employees, Both Family And Non-Family * Dealing with Inactive Minority Shareholders * Eliminating Minority Shareholders * Family Businesses In Financial Distress * Selling a Family Owned Business * Preserving And Transferring Family Wealth * Family Businesses Going Public * Appendix 1: Selected Portions Of Speech By Philip Clemens * Appendix 2: Prenuptial Agreement * Appendix 3 * Irrevocable Spendthrift Trust