A recent announcement by the city council indicated that on average residents in Edinburgh have the highest level of disposable income of any city in the U.K.

This, amongst other positive economic indicators including low unemployment and high levels of foreign investment.

No doubt of course that the Edinburgh economy is strong and its diversity has allowed it to weather many storms (unlike say, Aberdeen?) but do these numbers actually mean we’re better off?

We’ve taken one metric – average disposable income – and measured it against inflation over the period 1997-2015 (currently published figures) to see if we are indeed getting more prosperous in the city.

Granted its one metric and so we must be wary to read to much into these results however they do make for interesting reading in the interactive charts here: https://public.tableau.com/profile/cameron.mchattie#!/vizhome/Edinburgh-DisposableIncome1997-2012/Story1

The UK’s Government has again been busy creating new corporate crimes to help enforce its policy objectives.

This time it relates to tax evasion, or more accurately “failure to prevent the facilitation of tax evasion”. Two new offences came into force on 30 September 2017 in the Criminal Finances Act 2017 – one for UK tax evasion and one for foreign tax evasion. As the HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) press release says: “It is already a crime to evade tax, or deliberately help another person to do so, but on behalf of the majority of taxpayers who pay what is due, the UK government is taking an even firmer stance on corporate fraud in a move designed to drive a change in corporate culture.” Much like anti-bribery and corruption rules your company’s defence is to prove you have reasonable prevention procedures in place. HMRC has provided guidance on this, which this blog summarises for you.

Who is this relevant for?

All companies and partnerships in all industries will need to put some prevention procedures in place. Higher risk sectors e.g. accountancy, tax advice, wealth management and legal services will need to do more.

What are the offences?

There’s three parts: (1) a taxpayer commits criminal tax evasion, (2) a person who is acting on behalf of your company or partnership commits an offence by “deliberately and dishonestly” helping the taxpayer evade tax (“facilitation”), and (3) the company failed to take reasonable steps to prevent this criminal facilitation. Part (3) is the corporate offence and the only part that’s new. For the UK tax evasion offence the company or its business could be based abroad. For the foreign tax evasion offence only the company, its business or some of its staff needs to be based in the UK. It doesn’t matter whether the senior management / board were aware of the facilitation or not.

What’s tax evasion (illegal) and what’s tax avoidance (legal)?

This is not an easy question as the line is increasingly blurred but the HMRC guidance provides some examples of criminal facilitation of tax evasion:

· A mid-size car parts maker operating in the UK and Europe, entered into a sub-contracting arrangement with an UK distributor. The senior managers of the UK distributor created a false invoicing scheme with the assistance of a purchaser, allowing the purchaser to evade UK taxes due on its purchase of the car parts in the UK.

· As part of a large transaction an employee of a UK-based multinational bank knowingly referred a corporate client to an offshore accounting firm with the express intention of assisting the corporate client to set up a structure allowing the client to evade foreign income tax.

Existing procedures won’t cut it

Companies and partnerships who operate in the UK or deal with UK tax will need to put in place yet more compliance procedures – HMRC is very clear that your existing anti-bribery and corruption, fraud prevention or financial crime prevention procedures (if applicable) will help but aren’t enough on their own.

So what do you need to do?

According to HMRC guidance every company and partnership needs to firstly undertake a risk assessment of the products and services it offers, as well as internal systems and client data that might be used to facilitate tax evasion. This includes “sitting at the desk” of employees and other associated persons, considering the motive, means and opportunity for facilitating tax evasion. When doing this you should consider typical fraud “red flags”, for example:

Are there staff who refuse to take leave and do not allow anyone else to review their files, or are overtly defensive over client relationships?
Do existing processes ensure that for higher risk activity at least a sample of files are routinely reviewed by a second pair of eyes?
Then consider tailoring existing processes and procedures accordingly to prevent and detect potential tax evasion facilitation – this could include:

Having a commitment to preventing the involvement of those acting on your behalf in the criminal facilitation of tax evasion, demonstrated by issuing a prominent message from the board of directors, partners or leadership team against all forms of tax evasion;

  • Having terms in contracts with employees and contractors requiring them not to engage in facilitating tax evasion and to report and concerns immediately;
  • Providing regular training for staff on preventing the facilitation of tax evasion;
  • Having clear whistle-blowing procedures;
  • Ensure your pay and bonus policy/structure encourages reporting and discourages pursuing profit to the point of condoning tax evasion;
  • Having regular reviews of the effectiveness of prevention procedures and refining them where necessary; and
  • Monitoring and enforcing compliance with prevention procedures.

These are merely the basics for SMEs and need to be tailored to the organisation’s specific risks. Larger or higher risk companies and partnerships will need to do more on top of this to comply but may have guidance from their sector regulator to help them.

When do we need to do this?

HMRC is expecting you to be doing your risk assessments and initial staff communications now and to have a clear timeframe for putting the other procedures in place.

Getting help

For more information or help with complying contact the Corporate Team at Blackadders. Thanks to Sara Scott, our Regulation & Compliance Manager for input to this article.

whodaresSEO or Search Engine Optimisation. To some, it’s a marketing must. A guaranteed traffic generator for your website and a steady source of engagement with potential customers. For others it can be a total mystery, a black box on the scale of an Agatha Christie novel.

The good news is that there are very few things in life that are a total mystery and SEO most definitely doesn’t fall into that category. If there is one question we get consistently asked by clients it’s this: “How do you know you can improve my search rankings?” And the answer is simple. Because it’s based on an algorithm and if you broadly know the set of rules that go into said formula, well you’re well on the way to taming the Google beast.

So, in this blog, we’re going to let you in on a few of its secrets, focusing in on a small sub section of SEO, on-page factors. Think of on-page factors as the most visible aspects of SEO. To use a well-worn analogy if SEO was an iceberg, on-page factors would be the part above the sea. So, without further ado let’s run through a few key aspects of on-page SEO and how you can alter them to your benefit.

#1 – The Title Tag –

As with any marketing what people see or hear about your business is kind of the whole point of doing it in the first place and SEO is no different. Which is why title tags are so important. Essentially an HTML element located in the header section of any web page, title tags are typically what search engines display as the clickable headline in their results. The best way to think about title tags are like the spine of a book. Picture yourself in a library. What part of the book do you read before taking it off the shelf? That’s right the spine! So, if you run a website, make sure that spine (title tag) is accurate, compelling and representative of the on-page content. Do this and you’ve just earned a big tick in the eyes of search engines.

#2 – URL Structure –

URL’s are an oft over looked tool in the SEO arsenal because they are, in fairness one of its more boring aspects. Why spend time fretting over URL structure when you can be creating a mind-blowing infographic or blog post, right? But the truth is that you should give thought to it, not only because it provides helpful navigation to users but because the information contained is used to evaluate the relevance of web pages by search engines. Remember all the search engine wants to do is be confident that when it sends people through to a web page the searcher will find what they searched for. Nothing more, nothing less.

And so, when you have a URL structured like this: www.examplewebpage.com/64638q3746464 your sending a message – intended or otherwise – to search engines that you’re not willing to help users understand what they might be clicking through to or where they might end up on your website.

Sure, it can be a pain (goodness knows we know!) but spending the few minutes to construct helpful URL’s can make a lot of difference in the long run. As the saying goes; the devil is in the detail.

#3 – On-page content –

Arguably the most important aspect of SEO and the part of your website that will play the biggest role in its success – the words. So important is this now deemed in the eyes of search engines it has sprung an entire sub-category of marketing, content and inbound.

The good news is this is probably the least technical of all SEO and by extension the most accessible to non-developers and the one that if executed well can generate the greatest search engine gains. The bad news? It’s probably the most difficult and competitive way to do so.

Difficult but by no means impossible and like any other aspect of SEO if you follow some crucial rules you can give your content a fighting chance. And the good news is you already know them! Think about any website or page which really engaged you? Our guess is that it was relevant to what you were searching for, provided unique and compelling information, had ample links back to other parts of the website and reinforced the topic throughout the page. Right? Well that is essentially the key points to on-page content. No secrets, no gimmicks. Just good, solid, useful information for users.

#4 – Image alt-tags –

Despite recent product launches from Google and Apple, computers are still some way off universal image recognition and, for the foreseeable future at least, search engines will likely remain a text-only piece of software. What do we mean by that? Well just that, it has the capacity to read text-only and as pretty as the pictures on a website may be, they have no way to differentiate between an apple and an orange. That is of course, unless we tell them. And that is where the image alt-text comes in.

Ask yourself this, how many times have you hovered over a photo online and a long list of numbers and letters appear? A lot presumably. Well that is an example of poor image alt-text. Again, it might not be the most glamourous aspect to SEO but it is vitally important to an effective SEO strategy.

Remember, search engines are just software like any other and they rely on our inputs to tell them what to think and how to respond. So, if you’ve got an image of a banana on your site, label it as a banana. You’ll keep the folks at Google happy and make your site vastly more searchable for potential users.

As outlined above SEO is a large area of marketing and with updates being made to search engine algorithms all the time. That said there are some key principles that are unlikely to ever change. If in doubt put yourself in the user’s shoes and ask yourself the question: if I was on my website would it make me more or less informed about a given topic. If that answer is no – then you’ve probably got work to do. But if you’re willing then the prize is there with better visibility online, more website users and more informed customers.

If you’d like more information about SEO or inbound marketing then please get in touch with us today for a free consultation. www.whodaresmarketing.com

M&S Spark Something Good 2017The Yard runs adventure play services for disabled children, young people and their families in the east of Scotland.

We offer disabled children and their siblings the chance to experience creative, adventurous indoor and outdoor play in a well-supported environment, as well as providing advice, information and support for parents and carers.

At The Yard, we are fortunate to have great support from our local community, and we love welcoming local companies to do some volunteering. This helps us build stronger relationships by offering them greater insight into what we do and how they can help. Spending time at The Yard also helps teams really understand the difference their support makes to our children and families. We see corporate volunteering as a two-way partnership with benefits for both sides.

From the perspective of the corporate, volunteering is an excellent way to contribute to the organisation’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) objectives. It is also highly effective in bringing teams together, contributing to team building and boosting staff morale by enabling them to make a real difference in their local community. The teams who come along to The Yard tell us they also get the ‘feel good factor’ from the knowledge they are directly contributing to improved play experiences for our children and young people.

For The Yard, corporate volunteering allows us to benefit from time and skills or expertise we otherwise would not have within our own team. It is a great way to encourage business and skill sharing, helping bring the private and third sectors together. There is a lot we can learn from each other, for example, as The Yard continues to grow and expand into new areas. Our communications team recently benefitted from a full day of Skyscanner’s growth expertise as part of their OneDay initiative, which helped us consider new ways of working.

This year alone, we have been supported by teams from organisations as diverse as Marks & Spencer, Kames Capital, Peter Vardy, Wood Mackenzie and the Scottish Government. These teams have supported us with everything from hands-on jobs like gardening, painting and bike repair, to training for our office staff, brainstorming our latest communications strategy and delivering skills-based workshops for our young people.

During the summer, as part of Spark Something Good, a group of volunteers from Marks & Spencer helped us create an amazing new sensory garden area in a secluded part of our playground. Our young people are delighted to have a new garden space to explore. We have also gratefully accepted offers of a new mural for our reception area and MS Office training for our team.

We know first-hand that volunteering, even just for a few hours, often leads to longer term relationships and strengthens our links with the local community. We always have a wide range of volunteering opportunities on offer, from bake sales to building fences. If you are interested in offering your team’s skills to support The Yard, please email fundraising@theyardscotland.org.uk.

Dear CEO,

A CEO was asked when he had last heard bird song.
The CEO burst into tears.
He had been living a life of offices, taxis, trains and planes. Incessantly.

What about you?
What are you hearing? Now? Routinely?
Intermittent high pitched screeching? The threatening bass riff from Jaws? Maybe a happily creative jam session. You are part of a great team.
Who is the arranger, the conductor in all of this?

And what of the whispers?
The lows and highs on the edge of hearing?
What sense are you making of these? Great ideas in the making? The fin of an inbound shark?
A whisper that you are adrift? In the wrong place?

Back to the tearful CEO.
There’s something right there about being disconnected from something deeply important.
Something we are missing in our flat worlds of screens, spread-sheets, tables, flip-charts, floors, roads and runways.
Something that refreshes, inspires, and energises. And a whole lot more.

Dear CEO,
When did you last hear bird song?
And listen?
Deeply? In awe? Enchanted? Content?

WHAT NOW?
If you have found this stimulating, we would love to help you reconnect, refresh, and re-energise.

One such opportunity is Highland Hack “Fresh Directions” 9 – 13 Oct 17, a 4 night hotel-hopping, 3-day facilitated walking journey through the Highlands for a small group of business leaders looking to write the next chapter of their lives. And here is a one-minute video that provides a small taste of the journey.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Dave Stewart
Managing Director
The Fresh Air Learning Company
Email: dave@freshairlearning.com
Tel: 0800 052 7900

fresh airThe Fresh Air Learning Company is on a mission to breathe fresh air into the effectiveness and resilience of boards, senior teams and leaders.

Why? We know how shifts in self-awareness, trust, collective thinking, courageous conversations, and powerful storytelling can lift an organisation. Been there. Done it. And now helping others dodge the risks and leap ahead of avoidable underperformance.

How? Bespoke experiences, journeys and programmes. Outdoors. Indoors. The right place for the client. Powerful. Unforgettable.

Spotless Clean BrightWasteLet’s face it, office recycling can be a chore.

You have your meal deal lunch at your desk. You know you can recycle the plastic bottle, but you’re not really sure about the crisp packet and the half-cardboard half-perspex sandwich wrapper.

You need to get on with your work, so you just find the nearest bin, throw it all in and focus on more pressing matters.

But here’s the thing. BY LAW offices have to recycle. The Scottish government has set a 70% target for recycling, and the pressure at work is going to get greater and greater for easy, instinctive recycling systems.

And your commercial cleaning company should help and encourage you to do the right thing.

So, here’s the Ten Point Office Recycling Plan from Spotless for all businesses who want to do office recycling correctly.

1. Understand the benefits of recycling. Recycled waste costs about 25% less than general waste. Why? Because recycled waste does not have an inbuilt landfill levy. Instead, the waste can be sold as a commodity and this discounts the collection costs.

2. Set a recycling target. We recommend that you align with the government target of 7 bags of recycling waste for every 3 sacks of general waste.

3. Get great bins to help you. Spotless works with (actually owns) Brightwaste who can supply FREE bins and FREE recycling advice for your office. Sometimes this will be neat cardboard bins. Sometimes really smart, airport-style bins for segregated waste.

4. Do away with bins under desks. 20 years ago every office had desk bins. Now 60% of offices use central bins, often reducing their office cleaning costs. Place the recycling bins strategically around the office. Keep them in areas where most of the waste is generated such as photocopying, meeting and breakout rooms, as well as cafes.

5. Get free help. Ask your waste company to come in and talk to your staff. Brightwaste Office Recycling offer this service for free.

6. Launch and promote your recycling initiative to staff. Hold a launch event to share the value and objectives. It’s worth including helpful (and humorous) messages using posters and stickers with gentle reminders on the benefits and desired outcomes.

7. Motivate your staff by linking recycling with valued charitable causes. Electronic products like PCs, laptops and mobile phones, as well as ink cartridges, can be donated to charities. Redundant office furniture can also go to charities.

8. Discuss and agree the collection strategy with your waste company. Kerbside collection or car park collection? And if car park, what size of bine suits? Make sure you’re not being miss-sold a bin that is too big for your needs.

9. Obtain data from your waste company. Ask them for a carbon report to show comparatives on your recycling between any 2 dates.

10. Lastly, find ways to reduce your waste and recycling output before it hits the bins. A creative team review will allow you to find more ways to reduce waste so that you don’t have to bin it: print less and on both sides; reuse plastic containers; maintain and upgrade computers to extend their lives.

You may not know that methane is produced in landfill from biodegradable waste, and methane is 23 times as potent as a greenhouse gas compared to carbon dioxide.

You may not be aware that making new products from recycled materials requires much less energy than manufacturing from virgin materials. For example, recycling aluminium into new cans needs 95% less energy than processing the raw material, bauxite ore, into aluminium.

If you get the recycling basics right, it doesn’t need to be a chore. Instinctively you will learn what to recycle and what not to.

Eventually you’ll find that the cost savings are not the motivation. It’s not even the fact that you are legally compliant. It’s simply the fact that you know you are doing the right thing for the environment, and you are doing it well.

If you genuinely get your staff on board, you’ll turn recycling into a mission.

Ask Spotless Commercial Cleaning or its sister company, Brightwaste Office Recycling, for a free recycling review.

changingIntercultural communication takes place when people from different cultures interact together.

Culture is learned, shared and acquired; it is not biologically transmitted, but socially constructed. We learn it from family, school and other social institutions. What is right or wrong, acceptable or unacceptable, moral or immoral is often defined by the principles of culture that we hold.

How do intercultural differences occur?

Intercultural differences occur due to the different values, beliefs and practices that individuals from different cultural groups hold. These differences have a strong impact on the way that people work, plan, behave, negotiate, do business, and establish relationships and rapport.

‘If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language that goes to his heart’ – Nelson Mandela

How cultures differ?

When the rules of one culture are used to ‘decode’ the behaviour of another, then it is likely to lead to cultural misunderstandings. Cultures can be divided in two categories according to their communication style: high context culture and low context culture.

For instance, in high context communication, communicators rely relatively more on the context of a message (knowledge, experience and non-verbal cues such as: facial expressions, silence, eye contact, tone of voice, silence, gesture, posture) and less on the words themselves.

High context cultures such as: China, Japan, Korea, American Indian, Most Latin American cultures, Southern and Eastern Mediterranean cultures, such as Greece, Turkey, and Arab states.

On the other hand, in low context communication the communication is straightforward, based on the semantic meaning of words and not veiled by non-verbal cues.

Low context cultures: Switzerland, Germany, North America and Nordic states.

In today’s business…
It is worth considering the skills that employers seek during recruitment, one of them being; interpersonal skills. These are vital for effective communication between individuals. From an intercultural aspect, competence in these skills can facilitate comprehension, diminish the presence of misunderstandings and stereotyping.

Doing business on a global scale or working with people from around the world, requires mindfulness during an interaction, and the most suitable way to address this is through intercultural training. Having culturally aware staff helps businesses to operate efficiently by ensuring an open-minded working environment, and high levels of customer retention and satisfaction. Developing intercultural awareness can contribute to the expansion of a business across national borders, to the attraction of new cultural groups of customers (and business partners!) and the potential for maximum business growth and profit.

A 2014 report carried out by Oxford Economics and featured in HR Review revealed that the cost of replacing a member of staff averaged more than £30,000.

This cost comes from a number of factors, which include logistical costs (such as temporary workers, recruitment fees, advertising, as well as time spent interviewing and shortlisting), but predominantly in lost output as the new staff member comes up to scratch with the role. This was found to take an average of 28 weeks, varying by sector, and even longer if the new recruit is coming from unemployment or a different sector altogether.

Why then, with the cost of replacing staff so high, should employers not be willing – even eager – to invest in their teams, make them feel valued, and ensure they remain within the organisation?

This is precisely the approach that DJ Alexander have shown their staff this year, by inviting them to take on a range of bespoke training courses with Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce.

DJ Alexander have invested in a number of courses over the past few months, with their staff attending workshops uniquely designed and delivered to meet their specific needs. Rob Trotter, Associate Director at DJ Alexander says “what we needed was to come up with a unique set of training courses to develop our staff in the areas most relevant and important to them and their roles.

“We approached the Chamber, who we know have access to all types of trainers, we briefed them on what our requirements were and what content we were after, and they came back with the right trainers to deliver that content.”

The Chamber’s bespoke training courses are entirely crafted to the needs of the individual organisation. We invite those interested to meet with a member of our team, where we discuss options around numbers, needs, dates and location. Taking all of this in to account, we then hand-select the trainer we feel will best suit the requirements, and facilitate a meeting between the trainer and the organisation. In 2016, we ran over a hundred courses on a range of topics, delivered by thirty individual trainers, each an expert in their field. Our trainers are constantly refining their content to ensure it remains up to date, engaging, and informative – and for our bespoke offerings, relevant and relatable for the team they’re delivering to.

”What has impressed us most has been the trainers that the Chamber chose to suit our needs” says Rob. “They have each been spot on. The trainers immediately got a grasp of what we were after and came back with unique course content which was highly relevant and entirely appropriate for our staff.”

These sentiments are echoed by the attendees. At the close of each training session, we allow delegates to give their feedback so that we can continue to improve our product offering. Following the courses crafted for DJ Alexander, recurring themes in the feedback forms include ‘insightful’, ‘informative’, ‘practical’, and ‘relevant’, with one writing that the course content “allowed me to think about everyday scenarios in a completely new light”.

DJ Alexander are seeing other benefits outside of simply up-skilling their staff, too.

Rob Trotter says “our staff feel very enthusiastic about the investment by DJ Alexander to develop them personally and professionally. I have seen that these trainings have boosted their confidence and their loyalty to the firm. Investing in their training and development has showed them that we respect and value them – and they really appreciate that.”

Looking to up-skill your staff? Contact us to discuss your needs, and hear how a bespoke training course could benefit your organisation: 0131 221 2999 / training@edinburghchamber.co.uk

andrews blog.jpg22222Having launched two companies and worked with organisations of all shapes and sizes over the last 35 years, it is clear to me that corporate cultures can vary wildly.

Those who consider their workforce to be disposable and accept high churn may have a poor brand reputation, yet still be considered successful.

In an ideal world all companies will encourage and train their staff which will help to benefit the overall work pool. However, many companies don’t go far enough. Millions of pounds are wasted each year due to mental health issues and reduced productivity; yet little is done to address this. Generally, physical injuries and disabilities are catered for but addressing mental health in the workplace is still avoided.

Why so?

In smaller companies productivity is at a premium and quality staff can be vital to success. Yet how many of you have staff that work long hours and don’t take holidays, yet seem to achieve so little? Or do you have valued staff who are talking increasing amounts of time off work?

You may think you have a bond of trust with your staff but put yourself in their shoes. If they’re struggling they might not want to burden you with extra challenges or they may think that disclosing their problems will affect their chance at future promotions. Changes in working conditions or company mergers, can have a bigger impact on morale than you might expect.

Don’t lose revenue through lack of communication and understanding. Get some professional training and learn how to maximise the value of your workforce. Don’t wait for a disaster to happen and then wish someone had only told you sooner!

Despite the fact that the family business often makes up a significant portion of a family’s overall wealth, many successful family business owners do not plan effectively for the succession to their business often leading to uncertainty, additional tax, family conflict and sometimes the complete failure/sale of the business.

It is extremely common for family businesses to struggle as they pass through the generations (for a whole variety of reasons) and indeed statistics indicate that most family businesses do not make it past the third generation.

In our experience there is no magic to good succession planning other than (1) taking the time to make a plan (using your key advisors in an appropriate and complementary manner); (2) implementing the plan (through careful lifetime and post-death planning) and (3) communicating with relevant parties – communication is absolutely key when it comes to managing the expectations of both family members and colleagues.

There are multiple factors to consider and some business owners (particularly first generation owners who have built the business up from scratch) find the process overwhelming. Each business (along with each family) is unique making it difficult to establish a set of core principles. Assuming that the owner wishes to maintain the family business for successive generations, the following represents some factors worth considering and if appropriate potentially enshrining in a Family Constitution and/or Shareholders Agreement to protect the future of the business:

1. What makes the business successful currently and bearing that in mind, what are core values, structures and protocols that should be enshrined for the future.

2. Is there an obvious successor either within the family or within the current management team?
This will often depend on the age and stage of the family members and whether they currently work/intend to work in the business or indeed whether they have the requisite skills to drive the business forward. It is important to remember that for some businesses it may not be essential for ownership and control/management to coincide.

3. Consideration should be given to timing – should the plan be implemented at retirement, over a successive controlled period of time or on death.
The transfer of shares or the creation of different share classes requires careful consideration both from a tax and practical perspective. Shares in an unquoted trading company may be eligible for Entrepreneurs’ Relief (reducing the rate of capital gains tax to 10%) and Business Property Relief (reducing Inheritance Tax to nil). Both reliefs are extremely valuable and with careful planning and advice can be utilised to the family’s advantage. It is worth noting that the reliefs have strict criteria attached to them often meaning that careful monitoring is required to ensure that they are maintained.

4. Trusts can be a helpful mechanism to hold/transfer shares to/for the next generation while retaining an element of control. Care needs to be taken not to overcomplicate the family’s affairs and it is important that parties understand that trustees have separate duties which may not always align with the direction of the business.

5. If it is intended that shares will pass to one child (in preference to their siblings) are there sufficient assets outwith the interest in the business to redress the balance and if not, how will this be perceived by the other family members and affect their ongoing relationships? It is also important to bear in mind that legal rights arise in terms of Scots Law meaning that children (regardless of age) are entitled to a portion of a parent’s moveable estate (which includes shareholdings).

In addition to a Family Constitution there are certain basic building blocks which should always be in place – it is absolutely essential that a Will and a Power of Attorney should be prepared.