Protecting The Family Fortune Research Study

Thursday 5th June 2008

U.S. Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management, Prince & Associates, and Campden Research have released results of a new ground-breaking study examining the wealth planning strategies and practices — and the behavioral traits that drive them — of ultra-affluent global family business owners.

Protecting the Family Fortune, a global study of 242 owners of family businesses with an average worth of $730 million, is the most comprehensive report of its kind.

Summary:

The Prince & Associates/Campden Research Protecting The Family Fortune Research Study investigates the wealth planning habits of ultra-high-net-worth business-owning families and how their views on the role of the family business and their ability to focus on their core competencies affect the running of the business and planning for future generations.

It found that the majority of wealthy owners of ultra-high-net-worth family businesses are not implementing succession plans, don't have asset protection strategies and are not updating estate plans, leaving their professional and personal interests vulnerable.

Family business owners can be highly successful in creating and running their businesses, but they are often less successful when it comes to transitioning their companies from one generation to the next and protecting their business and personal wealth. Most ultra-affluent family business owners do have basic succession and trust and estate plans. The problem is they are all too often sitting on shelves gathering dust. Not only do these families need to act on implementing and updating their wealth planning strategies, they need more sophisticated strategies to better protect their wealth.

Conclusion:

Ultra-high-net-worth business-owning families would be best served by identifying a central advisor to coordinate a team of specialist advisors to address the sophisticated wealth planning they need to ensure the best transition and protection of their business and personal wealth from generation to generation.

The Prince & Associates/Campden Research Protecting The Family Fortune Research Study provides a roadmap for families to identify what they need to address and for advisors to better meet the needs of their ultra-affluent clients.

Why buy a copy of Protecting the Family Fortune:

Provides ultra-high-net-worth business-owning families an invaluable resource from which to benchmark their wealth planning efforts against their peers and identify the beginning steps to best plan for the future of the business and the family.

• Succession Plans: Find out the main emphasis of plans and the top mistakes high-net-worth families are making with them.

• Estate Plans: Learn how business-owning families can utilize different estate planning strategies and the dangers of not keeping plans up to date.
  

• Psychographics: See how personality traits and views on the role of the family business impact the success of the business and wealth planning practices.

Provides Advisors with an understanding of how to better serve ultra-affluent business-owning families. This landmark benchmarking study can be utilized to identify key areas where business-owning families

• Are not addressing risks and are in need of sophisticated planning strategies, for example, asset protection strategies.
  

• Need help in ensuring plans are up to date and are being utilized in areas such as succession and estate planning.
  

• Can benefit from assistance in coordination of the various strategies employed in wealth planning.

To order your copy of Protecting the Family Fortune (48pp), click here

Qualifying family members can receive a free copy of Protecting the Family Fortune click here to request a copy

Read an exclusive sample here

View actual contents and sample pages from Protecting the Family Fortune: (click to open PDF in new window.)

• Table of contents
• Sample page 1
• Sample page 2
• Sample page 3

Methodology:

The research was conducted in the third quarter of 2007. It included 242 second or third-generation family members domiciled in Europe, America and the Far East. Each had to be a senior officer of the company with a seat on the firm's board of directors; have a personal equity share of the company of 10% or greater; and have a minimum net worth of $5 million unassociated with the business.  A single family had to own 60% or more of the business, which had a minimum net of $300 million.

About Campden Research

For almost two decades, Campden has been a unique and indispensable source of information for large, global family businesses and their advisors. It delivers practical, solution-oriented information through conferences, seminars and a range of focused publications. Through events such as its Exclusive Family Meetings series and journals such as Families in Business and Professional Wealth Management, Campden has become a truly independent and impartial facilitator of dialogue between business and financial families, substantial private investors, executives from private investment and family offices, family businesses and their close advisors.

Campden Research is a new business that was specially formed to further extend this information offering. Building off our expertise in the market, Campden Research seeks to supply market insight on key sector issues for its client community and their advisors and suppliers. Through in-depth studies and comprehensive methodologies, Campden Research provides unique and proprietary data and analysis based on primary sources.

For more information on Campden Media, please visit www.campden.com.