
Family businesses face most of the same challenges and difficulties as all other businesses, but have the added complication of involving important personal relationships. Such relationships can cause the business to have different considerations and priorities, and when things go wrong, the consequences can be even more severe. In our experience, problems relating to ownership and management of a family business tend to be less prominent during the first generation of ownership, but we typically see problems start to arise when the second generation of family members is looking to step in or take over.