Divorce and Death in the Family Firm – A Business Law Perspective

Almlöf, Hanna; Haag, Kajsa; Sund, Lars-Göran

doi:10.54648/eulr2010008

Cited by 4 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Using contracts, owners can control for unwanted transfers of shares and agree on solutions to restore the balance of power when members join or exit the ownership arena. The regulation of ownership change can be achieved through four different complementary legal instruments (Sund et al, 2010). 1 First, transfer restrictions, such as the right of first refusal or pre-emption rights, can be included in (1) the articles of association.…”

Section: Regulation Of Ownership Change-the Need For Legal Advicementioning

confidence: 99%

“…2 With the advisors, we focused on how they use legal instruments to regulate ownership change, increasing the specificity with follow-up questions if certain issues were not already covered naturally (for example, how do you regulate for long-term illness?). The interview guide included questions on the four main legal instruments (Sund et al, 2010): (1) articles of association, (2) shareholders' agreements, (3) marital agreements, and (4) testaments. To ensure the relevance of the instruments, the respondents were asked if any other instruments were used.…”

Section: Data Collection Through Interviewsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, a family business is a hybrid of both family and business (Boers & Nordqvist, 2020). To achieve sufficient control over all types of ownership changes, owners therefore need to consider all four legal instruments: shareholders' agreements, articles of association, marital agreements, and testaments (Sund et al, 2010). The former two are business law instruments, while the latter two belong to family law.…”

Section: A Scattered Market For Legal Advice Leading To Costs Of Cont...mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Legal Advisors and Family Business Owners: A Transaction Cost Understanding of “the Ownership Contract”

Haag,

Almlöf,

Madsen

et al. 2023

Family Business Review

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Family business owners are dependent on legal advice to control ownership changes and uphold a functional balance between owners. This advice spans both family law and business law. However, family business owners are found to underutilize the legal instruments available, especially for small- and medium-sized enterprises. We explore the market for legal advice provided to family business owners. Our findings describe specific ownership costs that decrease owners’ willingness and ability to contract. This avoidance of ex ante costs puts the owners at risk of extensive ex post costs that could ultimately jeopardize the business.

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Section: Regulation Of Ownership Change-the Need For Legal Advicementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Data Collection Through Interviewsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: A Scattered Market For Legal Advice Leading To Costs Of Cont...mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Legal Advisors and Family Business Owners: A Transaction Cost Understanding of “the Ownership Contract”

Haag,

Almlöf,

Madsen

et al. 2023

Family Business Review

Self Cite

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show abstract

“…Sudden death has also been dealt with from a legal perspective, emphasising the need of preparation of ownership changes, not only planning of management succession. Sund et al (2010) pointed out that sudden events cannot be truly planned for, but the family and other close stakeholders can prepare to cope with the unexpected. It is essential to understand the national legal framework, including inheritance law, company law and tax law, when drawing up an emergency plan.…”

Section: Literature Review and Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Owner-manager when death do us part – roles of a widow in sudden succession in family firms

Almlöf

Sjögren

2021

JFBM

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PurposeThis study sheds light on a hitherto understudied group in family business literature: widows. We explore the roles a widow may take following the unexpected death of her owner-manager spouse when she had no salient role in the business prior to the death.Design/methodology/approachWe used a qualitative approach to research, to study inductively the roles considered and taken by three widows who unexpectedly succeeded as owners of Swedish privately held family firms. We conducted semi-structured interviews with widows and children in top management.FindingsWe construct a typology of four main roles a widow can take and analyse the underlying dimensions that they represent. We also analyse to which extent the choice of role widow can be explained by psychological ownership and double-loss theory. The typology can be used as a tool for family business owners and their advisors as the basis of an open and non-prejudiced discussion of the choices available to a widow.Originality/valueWe have investigated the factors that influence a widow's decision whether to take over the business or not, as suggested in previous research by, for example, Martinez et al. (2009). We explore the roles a widow can consider and adopt. The study advances our understanding of how businesses can remain as family firms also in the event of the unexpected death of an owner-manager (De Massis et al., 2008). We hereby contribute to the literature on sudden successions and on women in family businesses.

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Different Crises in Family SMEs and How to Prepare for Them

Boers

Henschel

2022

Management for Professionals

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Divorce and Death in the Family Firm – A Business Law Perspective

Cited by 4 publications

References 25 publications

Legal Advisors and Family Business Owners: A Transaction Cost Understanding of “the Ownership Contract”

Legal Advisors and Family Business Owners: A Transaction Cost Understanding of “the Ownership Contract”

Owner-manager when death do us part – roles of a widow in sudden succession in family firms

Different Crises in Family SMEs and How to Prepare for Them

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