Happy August! I hope you enjoy the newest podcast and the intriguing Bank of America survey below.
Latest Episode
We released Episode 13 of the podcast, Four Stages of Leadership (Part 2), my discussion with Norm Smallwood!
Click below to listen; and please Follow the show to get new episodes:
BoA Survey and Family Meetings
BoA surveyed 1,431 U.S. based individuals with at least $3M in investable assets, and found:
23% of surveyed business owners report inheriting their company, compared to 11% in 2024 and 5% in 2022.
Family involvement in business decisions rose to 27%, up from 7% in 2024, alongside increased participation in governance and future planning.
78% of wealthy business owners say succession planning is important to their wealth strategy, yet only 20% have a fully documented succession plan.
I looked at these numbers for a while, because taken together, they paint an interesting picture:
Over the last few years, 4x more wealthy business owners inherited their family companies. However, only 20% of them have a fully documented succession process, and only 7% of family businesses had family members involved in decision-making or influencer roles as recently as 2024.
I live in Augusta, Georgia, where we host the Masters golf tournament. Let me rewrite the phrase above using a golf analogy:
Over the last four years, Augusta National has invited 4x more first-time participants to the Masters. However, Augusta National made few written plans to accommodate the needs of these first-timers, and only 7% of them showed up on the first tee with a written tournament strategy.
That analogy is almost unthinkable!
The antidote
In the podcast, Norm and I talk about the importance of hosting Family ACTion Meetings (building alignment, communication, trust).
Those are the meetings that prepare families for leadership and ownership transition, and help work out systemic issues that arise during those inflection points.
BoA’s survey lends urgency to that advice.
Till the next episode…
As you listen, I’m curious what comes up for you. I’ll respond to each comment left below, and any message that you send. If I get stuck, we’ll reach out to Norm together!
And as my grandfather would have said, thank you so very, very much for listening.
- Adam Hatcher, for Twenty One Clear
