Membership of ICFIB: Advisors & Suppliers
Q: How many of your clients are family-run businesses?
Q: What are you doing to understand the issues they face and ensure your services are the best they can be?
All family businesses, from time to time, will require the services of professional advisors, such as accountants, banks, lawyers, wealth management and more. When faced with the decision of who to choose in a competitive market, we know that families prefer to opt for advisors that can demonstrate empathy and understanding for the issues they face as a family business.
The family business sector is huge. In fact 75% of all private UK businesses are family owned or run.
As part of our mission to ensure that family businesses have access to the highest quality support we have developed a unique membership structure which includes an accredited programme for professionals that offer services to support family businesses through to a directory based membership for suppliers to these organisations.
There are currently 3 levels of membership; Professional, Corporate & Associate.
| Professional Membership | An individual professional advisor that undergoes the formal ICFIB training and accreditation process. This is ICFIB’s primary accreditation. Membership also allows discounted rates for a range of additional workshops, events and publications | ||||||||||||||
| Corporate Membership | Company or firm that wishes to develop their business strategy to support and work with families in business. They must have a minimum of one professional member to comply. This applies to each address – for clarification please contact us. | ||||||||||||||
| Associate Membership | Directory based membership open to any organisation or individual wishing to state their support for, or promote their products and services to, families in business including those within Corporate Member firms and organisations | ||||||||||||||
Formal accreditation assists professional practitioners and their organisations to identify, develop and formulate their own family business strategy. We work closely with these very special advisors to ensure they develop specialised skills to facilitate working specifically with families in business.
Member status of ICFIB is available only to those that offer a strategic service to their family business clients and have a demonstrated commitment to the sector. There is a strict criteria for Professional and Corporate members and they are required to show evidence of their continual development, knowledge, experience and understanding in order to retain membership.
By enhancing an advisor’s knowledge in understanding the differences and challenges faced by a family business, a professional who is a Professional Member or Corporate Member of ICFIB has a unique and distinct edge in a very competitive market place.
Whilst Professional Membership is the primary route to accreditation within ICFIB, it is also possible to simply become an Associate Member for those that supply products and services to families in business or have a level of interest in this area. We also work to help implement the specialist skills gained by our Professional Members through Corporate Membership so business strategies can take full advantage of the commitment to working with family businesses. This in turn provides far more value to family-run organisations.
“I spent a very informative and thought provoking four days with ICFIB – really getting under the skin of the very real and live issues that challenge family businesses. There are no easy answers but plenty food for thought as the ICFIB team gave us the benefit of their vast experience.” Margery McBain, Gravitate HR.