Family businesses & business succession

In a business without family ties you can usually judge a role, a shareholding or an investment on its own merits. In a family business, family relationships and business roles run through one another. A conversation about salary is often also about recognition. A discussion about dividend may really be about control. And the choice of a successor can be experienced as a judgement. That is part of what makes family businesses so interesting: the commitment, the long-term thinking and the mutual loyalty are a strength that makes them successful and resilient. That strength is only preserved when roles, expectations and decisions are clear.

Years of experience have taught us how these subjects hang together. OneLane helps you create that clarity.

A tax-efficient transfer is only successful when the successor is sufficiently prepared and the family stands behind the choices that have been made. It matters that you start before the transfer becomes unavoidable. The decisive choices are often made years before the actual handover. That is how you avoid age, illness, conflict or an unexpected offer dictating the decision. Preparing early gives you room to explore different routes.

You may consider a child as the successor, but an external management team could be a better fit. Ownership can stay within the family while day-to-day leadership is placed outside it. A sale to management or to an external buyer may ultimately be the best solution.

Transferring a family business affects more than the company and the successor. The departing entrepreneur also has to find a new position. Once the shares have legally changed hands, letting go of the day-to-day leadership often proves difficult. That is the moment friction can arise, the successor is held back and responsibilities become unclear. This is why OneLane prepares the person handing over for their new role as well.

The eldest, most experienced child is not automatically the best successor. Suitability depends on what the business will need in the years ahead. A company about to enter international markets may call for different leadership than one that mainly needs to become operationally stronger. Entrepreneurship, decisiveness, financial knowledge and the ability to bring people along all play a part. OneLane can draw up a role and competency profile and assess the potential successor against it.

Several successors can form a strong team together, but it can also lead to unclear responsibilities and decision-making. Equal shareholdings need not mean equal operational authority. Equally, one family member can run the business while several family members are shareholders. Open communication matters here at least as much as the technical solution.

The value of a family business often differs depending on who you ask. For the person handing over, it is a life’s work. The successor also looks at future investments, financing costs and entrepreneurial risk. Other children may compare the shares with other family assets. A valuation brings objectivity. The tax value, the economic value and the eventual transfer price need not be the same, but the differences do have to be understandable and properly substantiated for everyone involved.

The right successor does not always have enough private capital to take over the business. The maximum available financing is not automatically the wisest financing: too heavy a burden can hold the company and the successor back for years, which does the business no good at all. OneLane advises on this as well.

By applying the Dutch business succession relief (bedrijfsopvolgingsregeling, BOR), the income tax claim can be rolled over, and the transfer is also partly exempt from gift and inheritance tax. That is a considerable help in safeguarding the continuity of a family business. Conditions apply to the relief, and it has to be handled carefully. OneLane makes sure the tax route follows the succession plan.

The current structure is not automatically suitable for the next generation. Restructuring can be sensible to separate risks, to make parts of the business transferable on their own, or to create different ownership rights. A restructuring takes time and has to serve a genuine business purpose, which is why OneLane looks at this well before the actual transfer.

A family charter sets out how the family wants to deal with the business, with ownership and with each other. The process of drawing one up brings differences into the open and gets expectations said out loud. The agreements can then be worked into articles of association, shareholders’ agreements, wills, prenuptial agreements or employment contracts. OneLane keeps the family’s starting points and the legal documents aligned.

Owning a family business brings responsibilities with it. OneLane guides family members and listens to them individually and together. We develop realistic scenarios, draw up a succession plan and support you through the execution — and we stay involved after the transfer. A business succession has succeeded when the company can continue on its own, the successor genuinely carries responsibility and the person handing over has found a new role. Family members who are not involved in the business also need to understand why choices were made and what they mean for them. OneLane makes sure the transfer works on paper and for the family.