Family businesses experienced unique headwinds and tailwinds in 2025. This year, the most significant challenge for family businesses across the nation has been uncertainty – including uncertainty over inflation and new economic policies like tariffs. The most significant opportunity, however, was the chance to shape tax policies benefiting businesses and families for years and decades to come. Despite challenges, America’s family businesses continue to be dynamic and resilient, fueling our economy.
This year’s Annual Family Business Report provides an overview of family-owned business sentiment, our work engaging with lawmakers on Capitol Hill, and the critical messages we want to deliver to audiences of influence.
Each year we conduct our Annual Family Enterprise USA Family Business Survey, a roadmap to the critical issues and concerns affecting family businesses. Through this research we can craft the important messages, create initiatives, and detail the talking points we want to deliver to lawmakers on Capitol Hill. This report provides highlights from the survey, which had 760 respondents from 46 states, and the many actions we have taken collectively as an organization throughout the year.
The year also marked the third year we have worked with members of the Congressional Family Business Caucus, currently being reconstituted under the new Congress. The year also saw us organizing three sets of important Capitol Hill meetings with our Washington, D.C. team members. The meetings covered a diverse array of topics, from women-owned family businesses to community engagement to legacy and succession.
In the last 12 months, we have held hundreds of meetings with Congressional leaders and staff members to educate Congress on key issues that impact family-owned businesses. This year, we have also taken our messages and mission around the country at dozens of private regional events.
These efforts are done to help our Congressional lawmakers become educated on the size and importance of America’s family businesses, the engine of our economy.
I want to thank our team, our members, supporters, and donors for their support and encouragement for what has been a year of exceptional growth and one of unprecedented challenges. With your help, we are now a powerful voice on Capitol Hill.
Pat Soldano, President, Family Enterprise USA
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The need for fact-based reporting of issues important to family owned businesses and protecting a lifetime of savings has never been greater. Now more than ever, successful families and family owned businesses are under fire. That's why Family Enterprise USA is passionately working to increase the awareness of issues important to family owned businesses built on hard work, while continuing to strengthen our presence on Capitol Hill. The issues we fight for or against with Congress in Washington DC include high income tax rates, possible elimination of valuation discounts, increase in capital gains tax, enactment of a wealth tax, and the continued burden of the gift tax, estate tax and generation skipping tax.
Family Enterprise USA promotes generationally owned family business creation, growth, viability, and sustainability by advocating for family businesses and their lifetime of savings with Congress in Washington DC. Since 2007, Family Enterprise USA has represented and celebrated all sizes, professions and industries of family-owned enterprises and multi-generational employers. It is a bi-partisan 501.c3 organization. Family foundations can donate.
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