Developing a family council checks a lot of boxes for a growing multigenerational family business. A family council provides a mechanism to engage and educate family members in a setting that includes positive social bonding time. Councils are a mechanism to define and address the “business of the family,” reduce conflict and promote positive social experiences associated with the business. They also encourage family interaction across branches and generations.

In order to sustain your family business for multiple generations, you need NextGen members who are prepared to serve as responsible stewards. This extends beyond the financial aspects of ownership and governance. Young people in successor generations must also learn to manage relationships among a diverse and growing group of family shareholders.

The WM Fares Group of Halifax, N.S., began planning for generational transition when the three second-generation siblings began asking questions about how decisions would be made in the future.

Wadih Fares, the 62-year-old patriarch and founder of the property development company, has the last word on business decisions. But in 2012, his children began to wonder how the process would work when he was no longer at the helm.