The business is doing well and nobody has said out loud what happens when Dad steps back.
Governance is the conversation families postpone until it becomes a dispute. We chair it, document what is agreed, and coordinate the specialists who put the legal instruments in place.
Dinmore Bell provides family governance for business-owning families: family and shareholder charters, succession planning and decision rights. It does not draft wills, apply for probate or administer estates — those are reserved legal activities, handled by regulated private-client solicitors whom Dinmore Bell instructs and coordinates.
How we own it
The family charter
Who owns what, who works in the business, how the next generation enters, how disagreements are resolved. Written down while everyone still agrees.
Shareholder arrangements
Share classes, dividend policy, pre-emption, deadlock, and what happens on death, divorce or departure.
Succession, coordinated
A sequence for handover: roles, timing, board composition, and the instruments the specialists need to draft.
Where specialists come in
We do not draft wills, apply for probate or administer estates — those are reserved activities. Regulated private-client solicitors and tax advisers are instructed and coordinated by us.
Related results
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Related insights
All insights →What a fully loaded General Counsel actually costs
The comparison is not our fee against an hourly rate. It is our fee against the hire you would otherwise make.
Free zone or mainland: the question founders ask last
The decision is usually made by whoever incorporated first, then lived with for years.
- What is family governance and how does it differ from private client law?
- Family governance is the structure around ownership: family and shareholder charters, succession planning, decision rights, and how the family and the business speak to each other. It is a commercial and constitutional exercise, coordinated with the regulated advisers who handle the legal instruments.
- Do you write wills or deal with probate?
- No. Wills, probate and estate administration are reserved legal activities and we do not undertake them. Regulated private-client solicitors and tax advisers are instructed and coordinated by us.
- When does a family business need this?
- Usually one generation before anyone thinks so. The charters and decision rights are straightforward to agree while relationships are good, and close to impossible once a specific disagreement has a name.