A successful succession does not make a noise. It generates no press release, it appears in no ranking. It simply leaves, ten years later, a company that has continued to thrive, a family that still talks to each other at the Christmas dinner, and heirs who do not wonder why the eldest inherited more than the others.

Such silent successions are rare. One out of three family handovers fails or leaves lasting scars, and the cause is almost never the tax structure. It is the absence of preparation, the dilution of intentions, the silence on the topics that hurt. Arcadia Partners advises owner-founders and shareholding families over the long term, where a succession can still be built in depth, rather than endured under pressure.

The work begins with a complete diagnosis: current personal and tax situation, governance in place, identification of the heirs and their wished-for role, explicit or latent points of tension between family members. This diagnosis is confidential, and we typically meet each family member individually before the first joint meeting.

The structuring phase follows: tax instruments (Pacte Dutreil, 150-0 B ter rollover, family holding, dismemberment of ownership), target governance (family council, supervisory board, shareholders’ agreement), liquidity tools for heirs who will later wish to exit. A family succession is never carried out alone. We systematically work with teams of specialised tax lawyers, notaries and wealth engineers. When the family already works with long-standing advisors, we always prefer to collaborate with them. When the situation involves intergenerational tensions, we activate our mediation practice.