All articles by Philip van Hilten

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What Happens When the Next Generation Takes the Helm? From Ownership to Stewardship

3 min read

What Happens When the Next Generation Takes the Helm?  After months of careful dialogue, the family had finally signed their first Family Charter. There were still questions, there always are, but the silence at the table had been replaced by something far more productive: a rhythm of conversation. Now came the next chapter: transition.The father, who had built the company, was ready or almost ready to step back.The children were ready or almost ready to step in.And between those two “almosts” lies the most delicate period in the life of...

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next generation, ownership, stewardship, successor,

What if your Legacy Is Made of Stone or Art?

2 min read

What if your Legacy Is Made of Stone or Art? Every family that owns a company faces the question of who will lead next. But some families inherit something very different — a castle, an estate, or an art collection — something that cannot be divided without destroying its meaning. These assets are not only valuable; they are loaded with emotion. They are places and objects that hold memory, pride, and sometimes guilt. And that makes them among the hardest legacies to manage. When several heirs share a property or collection, the problems...

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legacy, families, art, castle, inheritance, inherit

How Can Families Talk About the Future — Before It’s Too Late?

3 min read

How Can Families Talk About the Future — Before It’s Too Late? At the large oak table, three generations had gathered. The conversation was warm — stories, laughter, the grandchildren’s noise. But when the subject of the company came up, a polite silence fell. The father, now in his seventies, still ran the business with quiet authority. He had built it, after all. His children, now in their forties, each successful in their own way, felt uneasy. They didn’t want to appear impatient or greedy. But they also didn’t want to wake up one day...

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family, families, family charter, succession

Key Aspects to Consider When Setting Up a Family Holding Structure

4 min read

How can a family best structure its affairs? Setting up a family holding structure requires: careful planning to balance control, governance, asset protection, and flexibility. The structure should be well-established, tested over time, and allow family members to remain actively involved in management and decision-making. Only too often newly created holding entities such as trusts, foundations and companies are offered as a possibility. And too often these are taken on board when later it appears that there are many “young age”...

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Family Holding Structure, asset protection,

4 Steps on how to transfer the Family Business to next generations

6 min read

How to transfer the family business to next generations? Timely and proper transferring of family assets requires careful planning and training of successors and documenting the rights and obligations of all family members. This should be based on discussions between qualifying family members in which each express their wishes, worries, objectives and ambitions regarding the family and its joint assets. In this article 4 key steps are described which allow for a successful transfer of family owned assets to succeeding generations. Step 1 -...

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transfer the family business
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