Q2 2021 | 15 The Future Face of Your Business businessowners to understand how their wealth might perform in the future and the measures needed to ensure continued success. “Consolidated Wealth Reporting technology increasingly offered by wealth managers enables individuals to have visibility of their entire wealth in one place, which makes the management of that wealth easier to understand and ensures a joined-up approach when considering wealth structuring and succession planning.” Matthew concludes that there is no ‘one-sizefits-all approach’ to succession planning and that every business and every family is different, punctuated by differing family dynamics. “The key is that communication is king. How you communicate will often depend on the generation you are wishing to communicate with and their understanding of technology. The COVID pandemic has taught us all to embrace video calling and, in a lot of ways, many families are more connected than they’ve ever been, providing the ideal platform to initiate or advance discussions between family members.” “As well as the obvious benefits for the family and the business in terms of codifying views and establishing boundaries between the two, it demonstrates to external talent that they will be able to flourish in the business on their own merits, without risk of a family member being treated any differently.” Robert Grierson TEP, Barrister at Chetwynd House Tax Chambers and Member of STEP Birmingham, agrees that succession planning is vital if a business is to stand the test of time. He believes that there is no age which is too young for businessowners to begin proactively formulating plans for their succession. “The life expectancy of both men and women is approximately 82 years; but fatalities can occur at any age. Also, if a businessowner’s health is in decline, then they should start giving serious consideration to succession planning at that point in time.” While passing a business onto children is often the easiest solution to ensure a company continues to run, issues arise if there is no ‘heir’ to leave the assets to. Robert embellishes on what could be done if this is the case. “If a businessowner does not have children then they may wish to identify nephews or nieces or even other relatives who may be appropriate heirs to the business on the retirement or death of the current businessowner. As with children,
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