Investments

It is perhaps the entrepreneur's fondest wish: to pass a business on to a daughter or son. Yet actually making the transfer can be complicated and often includes undesirable compromises for parents, children or both.

Taxes will vary depending on whether you give or sell the business to your offspring, and whether it changes hands before or after your death. An unforeseen tax liability could take a huge bite out of the value of the family company, weakening it or even forcing a sale. There's also the sensitive matter of choosing which child to put in charge and how to compensate siblings who take other career paths. And, of course, the severe impacts of a weakened economy put timing pressures on business owners, forcing them to consider transfer options that may not suit their company or their family's specific circumstances.

Gillian Howell still marvels at her clients' responses to the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake that ravaged the island nation of Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. "One family, who had connections with many of the aid organizations that were doing relief work, actually went to Haiti and volunteered for quite a while," says Howell, head of private philanthropy for Bank of America Merrill Lynch. "They were involved in different community efforts, feeding people, building shelters and working with their family foundation to make sure their giving helped as many people as possible."

Natural disasters and other crises show human suffering at its worst, but they can also evoke human generosity at its best.