Feb 1, 2007 12:00 PM, Judith Stern Peck, director, Money, Values and Family Life Project, Ackerman Institute for the Famil

By: Judith Stern Peck, director, Money, Values and Family Life Project, Ackerman Institute for the Famil

Sam Beemer had asked his two sons to come to a family business meeting. Having just celebrated his 70th birthday, he was feeling his mortality.¹ And he'd been thinking about how to transition the family business interests worth $100 million. Sam had decided to begin the process of bringing his 43- and 45-year old sons, Jeffrey and Daniel, into his business affairs.

During my first hour-long meeting with Sam, he defined his main objective: He wanted to educate and include his sons in his business affairs. He wanted them to have a different experience than he'd had. Sam had been a practicing lawyer when his father died, leaving him $20 million and catapulting him into asset management. It'd been a major challenge. Sam had to give up his law practice and spend full time on his investments. The change had resulted in tense and difficult times. He was proud that he'd increased the family's asset base dramatically — five fold — and was looking forward to transferring these assets to the next generations, consisting of two growing families. But he wanted the succession transition to be less traumatic for his sons, a doctor and a professor.

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