TORONTO, Nov. 23, 2023 – Nearly eight in 10 (79 per cent) Canadian family business leaders are speeding up their transition and leadership succession plans due to growing pressures both outside and inside the family, finds a new KPMG in Canada survey.

These leaders cited a constantly changing business and economic landscape, disruptive technologies, climate realities and tax changes, as well as complex family dynamics as the drivers of their plans to accelerate the handover of their companies.

The findings reflect the views of 285 family business leaders included in the KPMG Private Enterprise™ Business Survey of 700 small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). The survey reaffirmed a significant demographic shift now underway in Canada, with more than seven in 10 (73 per cent) expecting to transition to new leadership within three to five years.

“As a generation of family business founders and owners decide whether or not to step down as CEO, difficult decisions about what should happen to the business, next generation readiness, and how best to preserve family wealth and legacy all need to be carefully examined,” says Yannick Archambault, Partner, National Leader, KPMG Family Office. “Successful families that take a multidisciplinary approach to addressing emerging challenges and have been proactively preparing the business, their family and their successors will be in a better position to choose the optimal path forward.”