Only 15 Percent Of Family Businesses Last Three Generations

The Wall Street Journal:

The path to riches usually starts with a family business. To use private-banker jargon, the Patriarch founds the company (they never say Matriarch) and then passes it to the Next Generation and then maybe to "Gen 3." Inevitably, the family members start fighting and the business goes under or is sold for a Liquidity Event. The family then becomes The Investor.

As the recent news about the Hunts, Buschs and others suggest, families and business rarely mix well when you get to a certain level of wealth.

Read the whole story: The Wall Street Journal

Comments

[DRaymond]

Is this surprising? How many children want to do for a living what their grandfathers did for a living? There is a natrual urge to strike your own path. And if a family business after three generations isn't significant enough to be ready for a merger or going public is it really all that viable?

[JScott]

Yup compare the Chandlers with the Rockefellers, so true eh?