Family businesses are, undoubtedly, an important driving force of the Basque and state economy, highlighting their transcendental importance not only from an economic but also a social point of view, and for maintaining and creating employment.
However, the economic and social importance of family businesses also entails an existential problem that inexorably affects all of them; generational succession.
Family businesses do not only have to deal with the inherent problems of their own management and competition in increasingly more global and competitive markets, they also have an internal problem; the gradual exit from the management and ownership of the company of family members of current generations as new generations of the family come in.
This process not only involves an important legal and tax element, but also an element of managing sensitivities, which, in many cases, require suitable, programmed treatment over time and, therefore, it is necessary to put all of the mechanisms that the legal system provides us with at the service of this, with the primary objective of conserving the family business and paying attention to these sensitivities.
Therefore, the feasibility and consolidation of family businesses requires global solutions which are customised to the specific circumstances and complexities of each family business.
AGEM has proven experience in providing legal and tax advice to family businesses, highlighting the professional approach, technical rigour and respect for the special personal sensitivities that come to the fore in these types of inter-family relationships.