succession

When is it the right time to enact a succession plan? Already in this series, we've discussed the obstacles that can come with handing the reins over to the next generation and how families must adjust to a shift in dynamic as roles evolve. But how does a parent know when their son or daughter is sufficiently prepared for the task of running the family business? For Tom Hinkle, it was when he realized that his daughter's abilities surpassed his own. "I recognized that her attention to detail was better...

I have enormous respect for TDN writer Chris McGrath and Wayne Lyster. One's an outstanding journalist and eloquent writer who works for an essential trade publication; and, the other's built a highly-successful breeding operation. I, nevertheless, must respectfully disagree with their characterization of calls for replacing dirt tracks with synthetic surfaces as "hysterical." While I cherish racing's dirt traditions (my goodness, Man o' War is my favorite horse of all-time), I'm also mindful of existing data that explicitly show that synthetic racing is the safest surface in the U.S. Numbers...

You know, it's almost like they're family. Okay, maybe that's not terribly helpful. As we've learned from others kindly sharing their experiences for this series, the only right way is the one that works for you. That's always a pretty good starting point, anyway, with horses. And given this additional variable, where the directors stage board meetings around a kitchen table, then different families must find their own ways to meet the challenges of succession. Some hire consultants; some transition with parallel businesses; some, no doubt, never get past the...

They say that life is what happens to us when we're busy making other plans. But even in a game where so much turns on chance, for better or worse, you can't just throw your hands up and leave it all to fate. After all, the countervailing dynamic to life on a horse farm is unchangingly cyclical: foaling, mating, breaking, prepping, to everything there is a season. Within those patterns, sure, we know to expect much unpredictability. But that's how horses teach us the long game, to be patient and...

By John Wollenberg, JD, CPA, and Leonard C. Green, CPA, MBA Editor's Note: Chris McGrath's popular TDN series "Succession" about horse racing-industry businesses passed from one generation to the next sparked this column by Len Green and John Wollenberg. The odds are frightening that only 50% of family businesses that are successful are passed to the second generation. Only 10% are successfully passed on to the third generation. There are many reasons for this and volumes of material have been written on this subject. But few provide you with the...

"It's a really difficult thing, to let go of something that you've spent your whole life building," acknowledges Nick de Meric. "I don't know if 'letting go' is quite the right way to put it. But to actually cut that umbilical cord, it's a leap of faith." The Ocala horseman, who reflected on a colorful past in yesterday's TDN, now turns his attention to the future. For the evolution of a successor program, parallel to his own, makes the de Meric family a particularly pertinent case study for our series...

In our walk of life, nothing succeeds like succession. As with any other form of agriculture, a horse farm is not just a business but a legacy sometimes shaped by several generations of rain-or-shine toil and kitchen-table lore. The balance sheet may happen to be in the black, or in the red--but that's just a moment in time. How does one put a price on the decades of patient nurture that have gone into land and bloodlines? Yet there's never any guarantee about the next generation, whether in terms of...

After 30 years at the helm of their Denali Stud, Craig and Holly Bandoroff are--if not stepping aside--at least taking a step or two in that direction. But the operation is safe in the capable hands of their son, Conrad. Kelsey Riley reports.