Family First - Assurance 

I think added assurance is important to a family business because there might be a greater separation of ownership from control. So the family members may have stepped outside of the business and it’s being run by non family members, and you just want the comfort that the business is being operated as it would be as if you were in the business. We provide added assurance by extending the scope of the statutory audit into particular areas where the family or the business may have concerns. It enables the family members to rest easy and understand that the controls are operating effectively within the business. And what we’re doing is looking at the family business through the lens of the family, and really understanding some of the issues that they feel that they have.

We can tailor our work very specifically, at some key areas and that might be over sustainability for example, looking at the sort of metrics that the business is producing. Or it might be over generating tax numbers, assurance that their controls and systems in place are adequate to produce the right numbers. We can look at three key areas, we can look at the numbers and how the families interpret what those numbers mean in a business context. And we can look at the corporate governance structures that the family business has in place and, particularly, where ownership and control have separated. And, finally, we can be forward-looking. We can help the family to really anticipate some of the issues that they will face as the business grows and develops.

KPMG’s Family First approach to our audits is different because we really understand family businesses. We audit a whole plethora of family businesses, not just across the UK, but globally. And what we do is we pull together the learning from auditing those companies to make sure that we’re delivering to our family businesses that global learning and delivering that knowledge.