Family governance
The family owns a business. Who governs the family?
Family governance, succession and next-generation readiness for Australian business families — from an independent principal with no products and nothing to sell you.
Seven Capital Advisory · ABN 56 671 902 702 — business advisory and management consulting. We do not provide financial product advice and are not licensed to do so.
The three questions every founder-parent asks
- “Will the kids be ready?”
- “When do we tell the children what there is?”
- “How do we hand over without a fight?”
Only about one in four Australian family businesses has a succession plan that’s robust, documented and communicated. Nearly three-quarters say the next generation’s readiness is the biggest barrier they face. And where handovers fail, the classic research attributed it to three causes: trust and communication, unprepared heirs, and no shared direction.
You may have heard that 70% of family transitions fail. That number doesn’t survive scrutiny — but the three causes above do. All three are fixable before the handover. None of them are fixable after it.
Governance, run the way an operator runs a company.
- A family charter that holds — who owns what, who decides what, what the family is for. Written, argued over, signed.
- A family council that actually meets — agenda, minutes, decisions, review — chaired and run the way a good board runs a company. That chair is the role we take: the Family Council Chair.
- A succession plan with dates in it — leadership transition and ownership transition, separated and sequenced.
- The rising generation, made ready — see the next section.
We don’t manage money and we don’t write legal documents. Your lawyer drafts, your registered tax adviser signs off on the tax treatment — we design the governance and coordinate both.
The next generation
The rising generation, made ready.
You’ll hand it over one day. Nobody’s taught them to run it.
In the best global research on wealthy families, 61% of parents worry an inheritance will blunt their children’s drive.
One-to-one mentoring for heirs in their 20s and 30s: how a lender reads the family business, how a board holds management to account, credit, contracts, people — and how to lead people older than you. Treated as future owners, not a problem to manage. And not reported on: what’s discussed in the mentoring stays between mentor and mentee; parents see the curriculum and the progress, not the transcript.
The point isn’t receiving the business. It’s being ready to hand it on in better shape than you got it.
Jack has been invaluable to my family office. He’s mentored and developed the next generation to confidently take over.
The mentor has actually sat in the chair: a national retailer’s Asia-Pacific business run as Chief Executive, and $5B+ in transactions before that. Not a facilitator. An operator.
No products. No commissions. Just counsel.
Seven Capital doesn’t manage money, sell products, or take a percentage of anything. The fee is fixed, agreed in writing before we start, and it is the entire relationship. Advice reads differently when nobody is paid to sell you something.
Who it’s for
Business families with $20M or more behind an operating company — past what the accountant covers, never going to need a $500M family office. If the family’s operating business is the main thing on the table, this is built for you.
Looking for a family office? Most families with an operating business need governance, oversight and readiness — not a payroll of staff, and not another firm managing the money. That’s the work we do.
How it starts: the Family Continuity Review.
From $4,950, fixed scope, agreed in writing. Four things, written down: the ownership map — who actually owns what; the succession position — what’s decided, what’s assumed, and what’s only ever been implied; where the next generation actually stands — readiness, not reassurance; and what to fix first. The findings are the plan; the plan is the proposal for any longer engagement. If nothing needs fixing, the review says that too.
Happy to sign an NDA before the first meeting — say so in the enquiry.
Who’s in the chair
Jack Hammond: ten years in corporate and business banking at CBA and NAB, $5B+ in transactions across M&A and corporate finance, and years running the Asia-Pacific business of a national retailer with a 1,000+ store network.
No products. No commissions. Just counsel.
One family’s version of this: a $22M operating business with the family’s personal assets sitting underneath it, exposed — separated by design, implemented by the family’s own lawyers and accountant.
Fair questions.
Do you manage the family’s money?
No. We don’t manage money, sell products, or take a percentage of anything, and we don’t provide financial product advice — we’re not licensed to, and won’t pretend otherwise. The work is governance: the charter, the council, the succession plan, the readiness of the people. The fee is fixed and it is the entire relationship.
What does it cost?
The first meeting costs nothing. The Family Continuity Review starts from $4,950, fixed scope, agreed in writing. Anything beyond it is scoped in writing before it starts — you’ll know the full number before you agree to anything.
Do we need a family office?
Probably not, and this isn’t one. A family with an operating business usually needs governance and readiness, not a payroll of staff. If your situation genuinely needs a full family office, we’ll say so and point you at what that looks like.
Will you report back on our children?
No. Mentoring works because the rising generation can be honest in it. Parents see the curriculum and the progress. The conversations stay in the room.
The next step
Start with the conversation.
Thirty minutes with the principal — the person who does the work. No deck, no products, no obligation. Jack reads every enquiry himself and replies within one business day.
Book a meeting