VIDEO: Why family businesses go wrong in the end

When it comes to transitioning businesses from one generation to another, Canadian Author Tom Deans wrote the book.

The book is called Every Family's Business. Deans is in Kelowna to share his advice on the topic and some of it may surprise you. He'll be addressing a breakfast meeting in Kelowna, but stopped-in at KelownaNow first to tell us about it.

Deans takes the view that a vision of a business becoming a family legacy are a mistake. "Making your firm's longevity an overriding business objective will destroy wealth with blinding speed," he writes.

Instead he makes the point that your family is your legacy, and business is separate from that. If you can't make the meeting and you never read the book, there's one thing you can do that's easy, get a will. Incredibly, close to 50 percent of business owners, like Canadians in general, haven't taken this simple step. Next up is a power of attorney, that you'll need to have in case you become incapacitated.

Deans' book outlines 12 important questions everyone associated with a family business should be asking to make sure things are on the right trajectory.

The speaking event is 7:30 am tomorrow, Wednesday at the Kelowna Golf and Country Club. The event is sponsored by Serviss Wealth Management and tickets are $25 and include breakfast. At last word, there were still seats available. You can register here.