Creating a successful family business is the dream of many entrepreneurs, but only a fraction of them succeed. Family businesses often think in terms of generations, not quarterly results. They are united by values, tradition, and legacy. Family ties can be the strongest glue, but also a challenge in the case of necessary management decisions. Conflicts in the family can easily be transferred to the business and vice versa. Generational change is also a key moment for the survival of a family business. However, Slovakia still lacks legislative regulation of family property management, and we are ten years behind the Czech Republic or Hungary. Family businesses from Slovakia are therefore forced to use institutions in neighboring countries to protect their property. "Where there is a lack of initiative in adopting legislative changes in Slovakia, Slovak entrepreneurs have the courage to use foreign mechanisms. However, it is important to note that using these mechanisms also brings obstacles," explains Rastislav Roško, an attorney from L/R/P advokati, in an interview.

You recently spoke with other European experts in the field of family businesses and succession planning at an international conference in Budapest. What conclusions did you draw from there?

I accepted the invitation of the Hungarian branch of STEP, an organization that brings together specialists in the field of trust and asset management. The conference was organized on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the introduction of the institutes of trust funds, trusts and private or family foundations in the Czech Republic and Hungary, and was aimed at exchanging practical experience. The conclusions of the conference pointed out that, compared to other European countries, Slovak legislation lags behind in creating conditions suitable for succession planning. We have lost ten years, during which neighboring countries introduced and applied relatively new regulations on the disposition of property. As we can see from the example of Poland, with a little will, this development can still be reversed, but it is necessary to focus on substantive discussion.

How do you perceive Slovakia's readiness for intergenerational transfer of family businesses compared to Western and Central Europe?

In Western Europe, the topic of building, improving and transferring assets from generation to generation has been relevant practically since the end of the First World War. In Central Europe, the issue of family entrepreneurship became relevant after the transition to a market economy and currently the business scepter is being passed on to the first, or at most the second, successor generation. Traditional rules of inheritance and succession often hit their limits because they do not take into account the specifics of family relationships, merit, abilities or potential of individual family members to continue developing the business. The business community has long been calling for a change in the legal regulation in this direction, but as can be seen, it has been heard in the Czech Republic, Hungary, and recently in Poland, but Slovakia has so far lacked an adequate legislative response.

How does the approach of neighboring countries to supporting succession in family businesses differ, where Slovakia lags behind in this regard?

The common denominator is that, for example, our partner countries from the Visegrad Four are aware of the need to create mechanisms for the intergenerational transfer of family asset management and maintaining business continuity. In Hungary and the Czech Republic, these tools have been in place for a decade and have experienced a huge boom, which, in addition to solving the basic problem of family business, has also brought secondary effects in the form of the development of legal, advisory and financial services. Poland joined this trend in 2023 and is finding its addressees in this area. Slovakia has not yet boarded this train, its closest neighbors are moving away from us.

After initial legislative efforts in 2022 and 2023, no legal regulation was adopted that would introduce the institute of a private foundation into the Slovak legal order. In the meantime, although intentions to support and develop family businesses have been declared, for example in the Government's Program Statement or through the legal definition of a family business, this has not had much response in practice and does not solve the problem of intergenerational transfer of family property management. Instead of tried and tested solutions that work in EU countries, only partial measures are adopted within our legislation, which are mainly of a formal nature.

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