The Family Constitution: Agreements to Secure and Perpetuate Your Family and Your Business

The two most effective practices implemented to protect and preserve the family business are “1) to build an independent board to strengthen the business and 2) to draft a Family Agreement to strengthen the family.” This book is about the latter: The Family Agreement. The authors, Daniela Montemerlo and John Ward discuss the three main reasons why a business-owning family would create a Family Agreement. Family Agreements foster the company’s successful development, maintain ownership unity and commitment and reinforce family strength as a family. Drs. Montemerlo and Ward outline how Family Agreements provide the vision that strengthens the resolve and devotion of ownership. They discuss the types of Family Agreements and how each type reflects certain assumptions about the business and the family. The Family Constitution: Agreements to Secure and Perpetuate Your Family and Your Business “provides a comprehensive framework for understanding the subject and a thoughtful approach how on to execute it well.” In its pages you’ll learn, the fundamental components of a family agreement, the differences between an owner’s contract, family business protocol, family statement and family constitution, the purpose of family agreements, what comprises each section of a family agreement, why the family’s values and beliefs are important to the process, why the process is as or more important than the content, how to understand whether your agreement will succeed or fail, and the timing and the process for reviewing and amending the document. The Family Constitution: Agreements to Secure and Perpetuate Your Family and Your Business is designed to be useful to those families who are starting down the path toward a Family Agreement, for those who are trying to decide whether to begin or not and for those families who already have a Family Agreement and feel it is time to reassess it. This book will also help those families who have tried to write a Family Agreement in the past but for whatever reason have not finished the work. The Family Constitution: Agreements to Secure and Perpetuate Your Family and Your Business is fast reading with real life examples, practical tips and 25 useful exhibits.