The Business of Family: How to Stay Rich for Generations

Linda Davis Taylor

Palgrave Macmillan,  June 2015

How do families build and maintain their wealth? This question has challenged families for generations. In business, any wise entrepreneur would develop a plan to guide the venture. Though most people don't have a strategy in mind for their families, it is precisely what they need. This book applies business concepts to invest in our families with as much focus and discipline as we do our financial assets.

Linda Davis Taylor is the CEO of the nation's oldest investment advisory firm, Clifford Swan Investment Counsel, and she has seen first-hand how important it is for the family to be connected by a common purpose. With an unprecedented amount of wealth passing to the next generation, the opportunity exists to reverse the old 'shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves' proverb. Applying a business mind-set to your family strategy will help you do that.

The Business of Family teaches you how to write your own family business plan using time-tested strategies from the corporate world to provide a practical, user-friendly method that ensures your family knows where it's been, where it's headed, and how it's going to get there. Just like a company, a family must invest in its people, who require support, training, and commitment to a purpose. Just like a company, a family deals with unexpected challenges. Just like a company, a family needs laser-sharp focus on its goals in order to thrive.

The Business of Family is not a business book about how to make money. The Business of Family is about the most important business of all -- your family.

Hardcover | ISBN: 9781137487865 | Publication Date: June 2015

Reviews:

"The Business of Family is destined to become the standard work in the realm of family wealth management. Well-written, clear, and user friendly, this helpful guide will direct interested individuals upon the right course to best financially manage their most precious asset: their family."
-- Laura Skandera Trombley, President of The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical
Gardens

"Linda elegantly tackles two of the most emotional subjects in the world--family and money. The Business of Family is a valuable resource filled with engaging stories and actionable strategies that can help families find common ground and sustain their wealth for generations to come."
-- Hannah Shaw Grove, Founder of Private Wealth magazine and author of The Family Office: Advising the Financial Elite

"Practical, thoughtful advice for families interested in a purposeful approach for maintaining and growing wealth. Filled with memorable anecdotes and useful references, the book identifies behavioral biases that can have significant, negative impacts on relationships and on wealth. The book is a model of how to think systematically about the interaction of business and family."
-- Janet Kiholm Smith, Von Tobel Professor of Economics, Claremont McKenna College

"There is nothing like being in a family business. Values are intertwined with commerce on a daily basis. As Linda Davis Taylor shows, whether you are in a large corporation or small Mom and Pop, keeping those values close is critical to success."
-- Alexandra Lebenthal, CEO, Lebenthal Holdings

"The thoughtful guidance provided in The Business of Family is nothing short of indispensable for those who desire to successfully transition their wealth and, as importantly, their values to children and grandchildren. A very important tool for professionals wanting to offer practical and meaningful advice to the families they serve."
-- Richard H. Patterson, Jr., CEO, San Pasqual Fiduciary Trust Company