PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP recently opened a new centre in Ottawa designed to help family businesses iron out disputes and plan for succession.

Already in place in other PWC offices in Hamilton, Vancouver and Toronto, the new Centre for Entrepreneurs and Family Business in Ottawa is designed to facilitate family business and ownership planning in order to meet business owners' objectives, achieve business continuity and preserve a legacy. The centre's main services are to provide: succession planning, facilitation services, governance planning, family office planning and transition planning.

Leading PWC's new centre is Martin Cukierman.

A lawyer and facilitator for more than 20 years, Mr. Cukierman is a graduate of McGill Law School and was trained at both Harvard University and Rotman School of Business in negotiations and mediations. His new position as director at the Centre for Entrepreneurs and Family Business began in early March, coinciding with the centre's grand opening.

"We're targeting businesses in transition," said Mr. Cukierman. "We offer facilitation services as a neutral third party. We bring all sides together to preserve business continuity."

Statistics show that between 80 and 90 per cent of Canadian businesses are family-owned and account for half of the country's gross national product. Of these businesses, only 30 per cent of them will continue as a family operation into the second generation and only 10 per cent will make it into the third generation. A mere one per cent will last through to the fourth generation.

"We're trying to change those statistics," said Mr. Cukierman.

Being an independent facilitator allows Mr. Cukierman to help all sides of a family business work out issues without taking sides. "We bring all parts together to create better mechanisms for dispute resolution and succession planning," he said. "We try to improve communication with everyone and design and implement structures such as who should be allowed into businesses and co-ordinate other advisers as (needed), such as lawyers and accountants."

Stephen Daze thinks family business planning is an issue that is largely under-serviced and is excited to have a new resource in town.

"A lot of family businesses are in transition and people don't comprehend the amount of issues involved," said Mr. Daze, executive director of OCRI's Entrepreneurship Centre. "The (PwC) centre is well-timed and I think it's well-suited to the marketplace."

As the Entrepreneurship Centre directs its energies to helping entrepreneurs start and grow a business, Mr. Daze thinks the new PWC centre will be a great resource he can direct Entrepreneurship Centre clients to as their business needs become more complex.