Built for a COI Partnership
If you’re like us, you know the complexities of working with family-owned businesses. As professional service providers, we want to bring value and help business owners and their organizations thrive, but sometimes family dynamics, operational gaps, and unclear transition plans can cloud the path forward.
What we’ve learned from advising family businesses for over 20 years is this: when family businesses struggle, it doesn’t just impact them. It impacts everyone around them – advisors, employees, partners, families.
What they really need is help. And when we can’t provide them with the support they need, we’re grateful to connect them to someone who can.
That’s why we’ve built a collaborative network of trusted professionals – attorneys, financial advisors, insurance providers, accountants, HR leaders, consultants, and more – who partner with us to better serve our clients. Likewise, we lend our consulting and coaching services to our COI partners’ clients, helping them find growth, legacy, and harmony.
Together, we can use our influence to help family businesses thrive and ensure multi-generational relationships continue.
Shared clients, mutual trust, two-way collaboration, and unequivocal confidentiality.
When should you bring in a family business consultant?
Perhaps running a family business is just hard. So how can you tell if your client could benefit from our advisory services or is just having a bad day?
Here are some commonly heard phrases that may signal deeper business problems:
- “We’ll figure out succession later.”
- “I need to figure out how to get out of this business.”
- “We need to improve our margins/EBITDA.”
- “Everything still runs through the owner.”
- “The next generation is not ready.”
- “My team is not on the same page.”
- “I want to be fair so I am splitting ownership evenly.”
If ignored, these issues can fracture families and cripple their success. Let these red flags (or white flags) prompt you to refer Compass Point! Our team of consultants, coaches, and strategists – along with our Six Pillars Assessment – is here to identify solutions to the powerful forces of love, power, and money unique to family businesses.
No two businesses or families are the same.
While this outlines our consulting methodologies, every engagement is unique.
Let’s Talk
about how we can uniquely help you help your clients.
How our family business consultants partner with you
FACT: Approximately 30% of family-owned businesses survive the transition from the first to the second generation. And only 12% from Gen 2 to Gen 3. And 3% from Gen 3 to Gen 4
Financial advisors are not therapists. Attorneys are not referees. Insurance brokers are not fortune tellers. When you’re seeking to serve a family business by managing their wealth, estate, M&A opportunities, or liability coverages, it’s not your job to solve the complex challenges that make them vulnerable to failure.
That’s where we come in.
Compass Point is here to help families in business remain businesses, but also families. And we want to enable and empower you to also do what you do best! Here’s how we add value to some of our top referral partners:
Accountant & Tax Professional
You see the numbers, but the story behind them is often more complex.
Bring us in when:
• The business is not making money
• Overhead has grown faster than the business can sustain
• There’s no clear plan to optimize both tax efficiency and enterprise value
• Long-term planning keeps taking a back seat to immediate needs
How we help:
• Bring structure and clarity to evolving businesses
• Support strategic planning beyond compliance and reporting
• Help clients prepare for major transitions
• Improve financial literacy, KPI definition and tracking for data-driven decision making
• Improve core processes for higher productivity
• Improve profitability
Result: Better-informed planning, more strategic conversations, and fewer reactive fire drills.
Business & Corporate Lawyer
You’re advising clients on critical business decisions every day, but many of the biggest challenges aren’t purely legal.
Bring us in when:
• Ownership or leadership decisions are creating tension or delays
• Clients are relying too heavily on one owner or decision-maker
• There’s confusion around roles, responsibilities, or governance
• Growth, restructuring, shareholder agreements or strategic shifts are creating internal friction
• You’re being pulled into “business strategy” conversations outside your legal scope
How we help:
• Clarify leadership roles, ownership structures, and decision-making processes
• Align stakeholders to reduce conflict and competing priorities
• Strengthen organizational structure to support growth and change
• Address underlying family and interpersonal dynamics impacting the business
Result: Clients who are more aligned, more decisive, and better prepared—so you can stay focused on delivering strong legal counsel.
Estate Planning Lawyer
You’re guiding families through deeply personal and financial decisions, but often without full alignment on the business itself.
Bring us in when:
• Estate plans are stalled due to unclear succession decisions
• Family members disagree on ownership, roles, or future direction
• The business lacks structure to support trust or estate strategies
• Clients haven’t prepared the next generation for leadership
How we help:
• Facilitate alignment across family stakeholders
• Clarify roles, ownership structures, and succession pathways
• Prepare the business to support estate and wealth transfer plans
Result: More effective estate strategies and clients who are actually ready to execute them.
Financial Advisor & Wealth Manager
You’re helping clients plan for the future, but their biggest asset is often the least organized.
Bring us in when:
• A client’s wealth is tied up in a business without a clear exit plan
• Succession conversations keep getting delayed
• Family conflict is blocking financial decision-making
• You need clearer insight into the business to plan effectively
How we help:
• Create clarity around business value, leadership, and transition timing
• Align stakeholders to move planning conversations forward
• Support succession strategies that enable realistic financial outcomes
Result: Get unstuck with more actionable financial plans, expeditious retirement opportunities, and stronger multi-generational client relationships.
HR Consultant & Talent Advisor
You’re managing people but in family businesses, people issues are often layered with family dynamics.
Bring us in when:
• There’s tension between family and non-family employees
• Family leadership roles are unclear or evolving
• The business is growing but struggling to scale talent
• Crucial conversations need to take place when it comes to business continuity
• Policies and structure haven’t kept up with the organization
How we help:
• Align family leadership, roles, and organizational structure
• Bring clarity by creating governance structure, family constitution, ownership
• Help navigate sensitive family dynamics
Result: Healthier families, and organizations positioned to grow with confidence.
Insurance Broker
You often have long-standing, trusted relationships with clients—and a front-row seat to the risks they face.
Bring us in when:
• A client’s family business continuity or succession plan is unclear
• Ownership transitions could impact coverage or risk exposure
• Family leadership changes create uncertainty
• You see families struggling with growth, structure, or decision-making
How we help:
• Support smooth leadership and ownership transitions
• Help stabilize family businesses through periods of change
• Strengthen long-term viability and continuity
Result: More stable clients, stronger long-term relationships, and better retention of the next generation business owners.
Commercial & Private Banker
You’re advising on capital, growth, and transactions—but the success of those outcomes often depends on factors beyond the balance sheet.
Bring us in when:
• A client is pursuing financing, acquisition, or sale but lacks organizational readiness
• Leadership or ownership misalignment is slowing decision-making
• Family dynamics are creating risk in a deal or transition
• The business is overly dependent on the owner
• Succession conversations keep getting delayed
How we help:
• Prepare businesses for growth, financing, or sale through stronger structure and leadership alignment
• Align family and external stakeholders to present a unified, decision-ready front
• Address internal risks that could impact strategic decisions or performance
• Support smoother owner and leadership transitions
Result: More bankable, better-prepared clients—and transactions with greater confidence and fewer surprises.
M&A Advisor & Business Broker
You’re tasked with getting deals done, but family dynamics and operational gaps can complicate even the best-structured transactions.
Bring us in when:
• A client wants to sell, but the business isn’t truly ready
• Family conflict is slowing or jeopardizing a deal
• There’s misalignment on valuation or expectations
• Due diligence reveals informal, unclear operations or lack of financial discipline
• Owner is not emotionally ready
How we help:
• Create/refine business strategy
• Improve EBITDA
• Prepare businesses for sale (structure, leadership, readiness)
• Align family stakeholders before negotiations begin
• Help ensure smoother post-transaction transitions
Result: Cleaner deals, fewer surprises, and reduced risk of delays or derailment.
Marketing Consultant
You’re shaping the brand and growth strategy, but deeper business issues can stall progress.
Bring us in when:
• Strategy conversations uncover leadership misalignment
• Long-term vision is unclear or inconsistent
• Decision-making is slow due to family dynamics
• You see growth potential—but internal barriers are holding it back
How we help:
• Clarify long-term direction and leadership alignment
• Provide insight into succession and growth goals and facilitate execution
• Strengthen the foundation behind your marketing strategy
Result: More effective campaigns, and clients who can actually execute and scale.
What’s our secret sauce?
Here’s a look behind the curtain at our process for helping family businesses:
DISCOVER & PLAN
- Interview company leaders, owners, and family stakeholders
- Assess family dynamics, communication, governance and decision-making processes
- Evaluate leadership readiness and executive development needs
- Survey employees and customers
- Industry and market research
- Identify succession and ownership risks
- Facilitate collaborative alignment sessions
- Define priorities and an actionable roadmap
ALIGN, EXECUTE & MEASURE
- Conduct regular accountability meetings, as well as coaching check-ins
- Identify KPIs and metrics to determine baseline and success
- Close performance gaps
- Facilitate high-performance team building and leadership development
- Develop a long-term family and business governance plan to provide structure and rules for communication, problem solving and business behavior
- Plan for succession, next chapter and emergencies
- Evaluate owner’s exit options and financial gaps
It starts with a conversation.
We listen and propose how to move forward based on what we hear.
What are other COI partners saying about Compass Point?
Don’t take our word for it. Hear from some of our trusted referral partners how we help them and their clients succeed:
Murphy McCormack Capital Advisors is a trusted M&A advisor to lower-middle market companies. Managing Partner Bob McCormack partners with Compass Point to help family business clients whose companies are “sellable but not ready.” By aligning business strategy, strengthening leadership, updating governance, and developing a thoughtful succession plan, Compass Point helps position businesses for greater value and better outcomes for both the family and the business.
Governance and Family Dynamics can be the invisible rip current that derails an owner’s exit plans. Partner and Senior Advisor at Legacy Planning, Matt Kulp explains how Compass Point helps family business owners strengthen governance, navigate family dynamics, develop a family constitution, and build a board of advisors—laying the foundation for long-term success and helping ensure the business can fund the owners’ next chapter.
Listen to Buddy Lesavoy, founding member of Lesavoy Butz & Seitz, share why Compass Point has been his trusted partner for more than 20 years. Buddy explains how Compass Point helps family-owned and privately held businesses strengthen leadership, improve operations, clarify strategy, and successfully navigate succession, exit planning, and multi-generational growth.
Senior Managing Director at The High Center, Rick Higley shares how Compass Point helps family-owned and privately held businesses navigate complex challenges and drive growth. From succession planning and generational transitions to mergers and operational improvements, Compass Point delivers strategic, practical guidance with empathy. Rick highlights the team’s ability to listen, tailor solutions, improve business performance, and always put people first.
How is Compass Point different?
We’re deeply invested in offering a full suite of integrated services that make us stand out
from otherwise similar service providers and competitors:
We don’t believe in transactional referrals. We believe in:
- Mutual respect for your expertise
- Shared commitment to client success
- Meaningful collaboration, not competition
- Long-term relationships over quick wins
And we invest in our partners through:
- Curated networking opportunities
- Educational events and CE/CLE potential
- Thought leadership and shared insights
- Introductions across our trusted network
Examples of Our Results
CLIENT STORIES
Auto Maintenance Company Navigates the Road to the Future
The informal commitment remained unwritten, and key decisions were sidelined by daily operations. Facing the need for a formal succession plan and leadership strategy, Siegel Distributing sought Compass Point’s expert guidance.
CLIENT STORIES
A Change in Circumstance Uncovered a New Transition Opportunity
After almost 40 years at the helm, a Lititz-based family business owner was examining the company’s valuation and sale/merger options when COVID threw a monkey wrench into his plans for transition.
CLIENT STORIES
Ensuring the business scales for the next generation
The business was doing well, but all major leadership roles were held by owners, with no active plan to groom their replacements. Learn how Compass Point helped them create the best governance plan for all generations.
