Why Do Family Businesses Struggle to Find the Right Advisors? Deloitte's Maggie Pan: Trust Matters, but Expertise Solves Problems
Family Governance Review | Editorial Team
🪙Impact 100 Insights：Trust is the starting point when family businesses choose advisors, while lasting partnerships depend on expertise, commitment, and a sense of purpose.
As family businesses face succession, governance, overseas investment, and cross-border partnerships, the first question is often not which tools to use, but who to work with. Having focused on their core businesses for years, many families are less familiar with external advisory services and tend to rely on existing networks and trusted contacts.
Chia-Chuan Pan, Chief Operating Officer of Deloitte Taiwan, notes that while trust is essential, long-term advisors must also have the expertise to solve real problems. Balancing trust and professional capability is the first step toward building a strong advisor network.
Trust Is the First Step in Choosing Advisors
Pan explains that most family businesses have spent years focusing on their industries, with limited exposure to financial advisory services or family governance. As a result, they often turn to familiar and trusted contacts when seeking external support. However, someone they trust may not always be the best person to solve their problems.
As family needs expand into cross-border partnerships, overseas investments, and specialized fields, existing networks may no longer be enough to meet growing demands.
Pan emphasizes that family businesses need partnerships built on both trust and expertise. An advisor's value lies not only in earning trust, but also in offering practical, effective solutions to the family's specific challenges.
Building an Advisor Network Matters More Than Finding One Expert
To make it easier for families to select advisors, Pan suggests establishing a credible screening and evaluation process. This would help families assess advisors' backgrounds and capabilities before working together, build initial trust, and reduce information gaps.
She also stresses that true advisors should go beyond completing assigned tasks. They need a sense of purpose, a commitment to understanding the family's perspective, and a willingness to work through challenges together, rather than treating each engagement as just another assignment.
A trusted network of professionals who can collaborate across different fields is essential to supporting the long-term growth of family businesses.
Conclusion
For Pan, family businesses need more than a single advisor who can do everything. They need a trusted, collaborative network of experts.
When trust, expertise, and commitment come together, external advisors can move beyond one-time services and become long-term partners in helping families grow across generations.
🏅Family Financial Service Impact Award
Maggie Pan | Chief Operating Officer, Deloitte Taiwan
▪️Full Interview: Watch or read the complete interview on LinkedIn and YouTube.
YouTube｜https://youtu.be/MCOWUu8d1dk
▪️Full Rankings:https://www.twbod.org/impact-100-2025
▪️ Follow the Taiwan Institute of Directors on LINE for updates on board governance, growth strategies, foreign investor perspectives, family offices, events, and featured articles 👉 https://lin.ee/SynuzIX
▪️ Originally published in Board Review & Family Governance Review, Issue No. 39.
▪️ Please include a link to the original article when reposting.
