The Shareholder Hub brings shareholders together around one (virtual) table
Are the shareholders of your family business spread across Germany or even around the world? Does your next generation (NextGen) expect fast, digital communication and instant access to accounts, information, and documents? Do you want to digitise processes within the shareholder office and streamline workflows?
PwC can help with a digital platform supported by a managed service offering tailored to the latest information and communication needs of family-owned businesses. On this platform, all shareholders of a family business can interact, communicate, and take action.
This digital solution enables up-to-date insights into finances and access to shareholder accounts at any time and from any location. An integrated communication component strengthens family cohesion and facilitates exchange among family members. Operationally, the platform supports all topics related to shareholder financing and committee work and offers additional support services, for example, through the INTES Academy for Family Businesses or regarding relevant tax and legal issues. This service offering supports the necessary digital transformation whilst simultaneously optimising processes, strengthening family cohesion, and enhancing the shareholder office.
“The new technological possibilities, but also a next generation that are digital natives, are changing the way shareholders of a family business position themselves, inform, exchange, and interact.”
Your Benefits at a Glance
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Inform, interact, communicate – all on one platform
In many family businesses, a generational change is currently taking place. The NextGen wants to do some things differently. They are used to communicating via apps and online channels in their private lives. They want to implement this way of informing, interacting, and exchanging ideas in the family business as well.
Moreover, especially in family businesses with a large and usually globally distributed circle of shareholders, it is difficult to keep family members connected. Digital support is needed for this. PwC provides this with a managed service offering through a digital shareholder platform. It integrates and informs, providing daily updates on information related to shareholder accounts, finances & taxes, digital communication, and training offers, as well as access to a variety of support options. This enables modern communication on central topics related to shareholder status, as well as digital committee work and modern and secure communication within the shareholder circle.
There are additional reasons for introducing a digital shareholder platform: in many family businesses, the processes related to finance, committee management, reporting, taxes and compliance, and training are not yet standardised and digitised. Instead of being “tech-powered”, this manual approach to processing and data maintenance greatly increases the risk for errors, compliance issues, and failures. Targeted digital support can therefore reduce risks, costs, and efforts.
“With the shareholder platform, we offer family businesses everything from a single source: sophisticated technology and profound human expertise, or to put it briefly: human-led and tech-powered.”
Social network-style communication
Through our cooperation partners, we offer an integrated social network application. This application includes the classic functions of a modern communication platform and strengthens family cohesion. The platform keeps all members updated on news from both the family and the business. Corporate news, such as dates for the annual general meeting or invitations to shareholder meetings, can be shared just as easily as family events like weddings or birthdays. Common features such as charts or survey tools are also available. In addition, the family can meet online in our Virtual Space.
The managed service for family-owned businesses includes the following components:
- Shareholder Accounts
- Shareholders’ Meeting
- Wealth Reporting
- Tax
- Legal
- Education
Shareholder Accounts
The service supports shareholders and shareholder offices in the operational management of shareholder financing and shareholder accounts. Shareholders have access to their accounts at any time and can independently initiate financial processes around the clock. For example, the platform allows users to coordinate payment flows, make fund allocations to the company, manage and invest funds, and monitor dividend credits. The platform is directly connected to the company’s ERP system and the company’s bank accounts, enabling processed data to be transferred within this framework. Additional functionalities can be added upon request, such as a comprehensive asset overview that can also be integrated into the service.
- All shareholders can view the status of the service and the corresponding shareholder accounts at any time. Account balances and statements can be retrieved electronically at any time, eliminating the need for manual mailing.
- The platform is connected to the house bank and the company’s ERP system. Manual booking instructions are no longer necessary.
- The activities of the shareholder office are centralised and automated and are transferred to a platform-based working model as part of our service. This allows information on a transaction level, including financial assets worldwide, to be provided digitally.
- Shareholder inquiries are made through a unified communication channel on the platform.
Shareholders’ Meeting
The service also offers digital support around corporate governance, particularly in processes related to (virtual) committee work, virtual voting, digital circular resolutions, electronic signatures, authorization issues, and much more. Examples include:
- Organisation of shareholders’ meetings
- Agenda planning and meeting preparation
- Conducting virtual and hybrid committee meetings
- Minute-taking, including task assignment with deadline setting and progress monitoring
- Resolution adoption with voting function
- Comment and note-taking function
- Integration with existing communication solutions such as Microsoft Teams
- Proxy and voting rights management
- Organisation of reporting obligations
- Monitoring of deadlines and due dates for compliance processes
- Document management for contracts, voting rights, proxies, etc.
- Management of master data and corporate data
We also offer Virtual Spaces as a communication platform, where we can facilitate video calls and chats, workshops and project rooms, as well as live streaming events in our Virtual Space.
Wealth Reporting
In this module, individual shareholders can map their entire assets and generate corresponding asset overviews. Whether stocks, real estate, or artworks, all assets can be brought together here for a unified and comprehensive view. By linking with valuation tools or individual valuation processes, the asset overview can also be supplemented with valuations. This way, shareholders always have a reliable overview of their current assets. As a side note: The Wealth Compass offers you a comprehensive overview of your assets – an efficient software solution for your wealth.
Tax
The platform provides support for a wide range of tax-related issues, including income, inheritance and gift taxes, as well as tax declarations. Shareholders can initiate and manage tax-related inquiries through the platform, with access to individual advisors for personalised assistance.
Legal
From support with succession planning to questions about corporate law to rental contracts, users of our services have access to a comprehensive pool of experts for individual legal advice on various topics through the platform. All inquiries are managed through the platform, including the possibility of a digital contract lifecycle management.
Education
The platform offers access to tailored training programs for shareholders, such as seminars on financial statement analysis. These educational resources are provided in collaboration with the INTES Academy for Family Businesses.
Contact us
Dr. Karl Küpper
Partner, Shareholder Platform & Corporate Governance Solutions, PwC Legal
Tel: +49 211 981-5941
