Transition or Sell: What To Do With Your Family Business

Abby Tucker, Esq. is an attorney at Barley Snyder and part of the firm’s Business, Real Estate, and Mergers & Acquisitions groups.

Abby advises clients on all aspects of their business, ranging from entity selection and formation to succession planning. Abby counsels her clients — including many closely-held and family-owned businesses — on mergers, acquisitions, corporate governance, trade issues, shareholder buyouts, and a variety of other transactional matters.  

Most of her work in the mergers and acquisitions area involves transactions for private companies in both negotiated transactions and process deals.

Abby’s real estate and business background enables her to advise clients in various industries with a full understanding of the complex issues involved.

Ben is a Partner and Chief Investment Officer at Waldron Private Wealth. He leads the vision, strategy and implementation of the investment department and is deeply involved in all aspects of our goal-based investment management approach. He also oversees the development of customized investment strategies for all Waldron clients, ensuring that allocations are aligned with each client's unique goals. He works directly with clients to seamlessly integrate asset allocations within their overall planning strategy and provide comprehensive wealth advisory services.

Paul has practiced in the business area for over 30 years, concentrating in the mergers and acquisitions, securities, banking and corporate areas. His practice includes complex and sophisticated transactions, and he has participated in hundreds of M&A transactions. For a representative sample of transactions in which Paul has participated at Barley Snyder, please see the tombstone announcements at www.barley.com/Mergers-Acquisitions. Among other recognitions, Paul maintains an "AV" Martindale Hubbell rating and he has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America (Securities, Corporate and Banking and Finance areas) and in Pennsylvania Super Lawyers (Mergers and Acquisitions).

Prior to joining Trendline Capital in 2022, Jim was a Managing Director of Investment Banking at Boenning & Scattergood, Inc., where for nearly 20 years he worked extensively with middle-market companies on numerous transactions, advising owners and executive teams on sell-side and buy-side mergers and acquisitions, raising capital, and analyzing strategic alternatives and opportunities.  At Boenning & Scattergood, Jim worked with privately-held, family-owned, and owner-operated businesses across a wide variety of industries, including manufacturing, distribution, consumer products, transportation, food and beverage, business services, apparel, building products, healthcare, and banking and financial services.

Before Boenning & Scattergood, Jim worked in the investment banking advisory groups of Griffin Financial, LLC, Berwind Financial, L.P., and Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.  In addition, Jim's background includes serving as a commercial loan officer for a regional bank and a vice president of finance for a private equity-backed company.

Jim received a B.S. in Finance and International Business and a minor in Economics from The Pennsylvania State University and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation.

Over a twenty-five-plus year career at his family's 45,000-employee, century-old business, Bill has held a number of leadership roles, including managing a $350 million P&L, launching multiple enterprise-wide transformation initiatives, and representing the company locally, nationally, and internationally. As a third-generation owner, he has a rare and personal view of the complex and human dynamics behind large multi-generation family businesses. Bill and his wife own a seasonal small business, providing added insight into local labor and economic trends. He has also worked in the management consulting industry and assists multiple start-up ventures and community organizations.

Bill speaks and writes regularly about leadership, relationships, and family business using his proprietary methodology, Familytics^®. He recently published Our Way, a biography on his father and his family, which The Philadelphia Inquirer calls, “a transgenerational saga . . . drama and loss alongside triumph and growth . . . an argument that it’s possible to succeed at work and family, with all the stress.” Our Way won the Gold Award from the Nonfiction Authors Association. Bill has published business and literary articles and poetry, and produced an award-winning feature film about human relationships. He has a second non-fiction, faith-based book preparing for publication. He teaches a class at Wharton on family business.