Douglas Box wishes he'd done some things differently. His three brothers probably do, too. In 1993 the four Box brothers inherited a successful oil business when their entrepreneurial father—former Detroit Lions football player Cloyce Box—died at the age of 70. The elder Box had left no detailed plan of succession, and sibling rivalry broke out when the board of directors of the public company, Box Energy, chose a younger brother over the eldest as chief executive.
Over the next four years, the four brothers filed lawsuits against each other as the business deteriorated. They eventually were forced to sell it for far less than they might have when they had inherited the company.
"We ended up selling an oil business in 1997 … and look what happened [to the price of oil]," said Douglas Box. He is currently writing a book about his family experiences and now works as a financial advisor at the firm he founded, Box Family Advisors, to help other families avoid what he and his brothers went through.
"We got to a place where we had to sell the business," he said. "A federal judge threatened to put the company in receivership, and that was when we settled. It was crazy we did that."
Read more at:
Don’t Let Family Fights Tank the Family Business | The Fiscal Times:
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