Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Family business ownership governance: owner attitudes, dividend policy, bloodline versus spousal ownership, working and non-working shareholders, wills alignment, dilution and branch structures, trusts and trustees, shareholders' assemblies and councils

Published by a LexisNexis Corporate expert

Practice notes

The examples in this Practice Note draw on a privately held UK company, although similar considerations arise for families holding alternative assets or operating businesses in other territories. Ownership governance for a family enterprise entails the family reflecting on core beliefs about ownership, then documenting these through legal agreements. For details on how to put a formal framework around a family-run company, see Practice Note: Formalising the family business: the advantages a formal structure can bring.

Value-out owners or custodians?

There is a clear divergence in outlook between two owner archetypes in a family firm.

Value-out owners commit while short- to medium-term financial returns are adequate. If those returns fail to appear, they will, like any rational investor, seek to dispose of their shares and reallocate capital to better-performing opportunities.
Custodians (or stewards), by contrast, care about the careful, long-term growth of the family’s assets, often over a generation. A custodian is typically prepared to balance immediate personal gain against other...

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Ken McCracken

Ken is recognised as one of the leading family business consultants in Europe. His work focusses on helping family businesses and family offices create the type of governance that will help them to achieve their version of success. Ken is also actively involved in advocacy to improve the overall awareness of the economic and social contribution made by enterprising families. He a Fellow of the Family Firm Institute (FFI), the leading international organisation for family business professionals and academics and is the author and teacher of the Advanced Certificate in Family Business Advising for the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP). He is a past recipient of the FFI Award for Outstanding Interdisciplinary Achievement and the STEP Award for Family Business Adviser of the Year. ...

Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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