Make Your Voice Heard on Capitol Hill
By Robert Panetti, CFA®
Managing Director, Private Advisor
Rockefeller Global Family Office
By Shirley Quackenbush
Managing Director, Private Advisor
Rockefeller Global Family Office
Read Robert Panetti and Shirley Quackenbush’s Full Whitepaper – Click Here
Family-owned businesses are built on vision, resilience, and oftentimes generations of sacrifice. When the time comes to transition ownership, whether through succession or sale, the process is far more than a financial transaction. It represents the culmination of years of effort, identity, and legacy. For many business owners, this moment brings emotional and logistical complexities that demand thoughtful, strategic planning.
Selling a business also introduces critical decisions around wealth continuity, tax efficiency, and stewardship beyond the sale itself. Navigating this transition with clarity and foresight ensures that both personal and financial legacies are preserved, setting the stage for enduring success across generations.
FAMILY GOVERNANCE AND COMMUNICATION:
BUILDING TRUST THROUGH STRUCTURE AND DIALOGUE
Establishing a formal family governance structure is a foundational step for families seeking to preserve unity, ensure long-term business success, and protect their legacy across generations. While governance often begins with planning for the family business, its scope can and should expand to encompass broader family enrichment, including the thoughtful transition of knowledge, values, and wealth. At its core, effective governance is built on clear, consistent communication and a shared commitment to professionalism, accountability, and openness.
As families grow in size and complexity, the need for structured decision-making becomes increasingly critical. A welldefined governance framework reduces conflict, fosters collaboration, and provides a forum for diverse perspectives. It promotes transparency and alignment with shared values, strengthening both business and family cohesion.
Read Robert Panetti and Shirley Quackenbush’s Full Whitepaper – Click Here
About Rockefeller Global Family Office
Life’s grandest visions require thoughtful plans. At Rockefeller Global Family Office, we’re focused on meeting the dynamic needs of each client, adapting to how those needs unfold over every stage of wealth. Our team is able to provide solutions to your unique challenges, while providing an elevated level of service.
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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.