An informal conversation about estate succession, which recently took place in a family setting, brought to light a reality that is increasingly common in the Brazilian business world: companies run without transparency after the founder's death, heirs unable to communicate, assets unknown even to the family itself, and disputes over inheritance and estate rights.
Situations like these are far from isolated cases.
A report published by Pipeline, a Valor Econômico publication, on June 12, 2026, presented a figure that deserves attention: family disputes, silent corporate conflicts and poorly managed successions may represent an estimated loss of between 3% and 5% of Brazil's GDP. In absolute terms, that would mean the potential destruction of between R$ 381 billion and R$ 635 billion in wealth per year.
The figure is striking, but it hardly comes as a surprise to anyone who closely follows the reality of businesses and succession disputes.
When the crisis is born inside the company
Many corporate crises do not begin in the market, with banks, with the tax authorities, or in the courts.
Often, they arise within the company's own decision-making structure.
They begin when the partners stop communicating clearly. When the heirs do not know what their role will be. When succession is treated as too delicate a subject to be addressed. When the company grows, but governance remains informal. When the estate becomes entangled with affection, power, vanity, fear and silence.
In family businesses especially, the absence of rules is often mistaken for harmony.
As long as there is growth, cash flow and centralised leadership, conflicts seem manageable. But in moments of downturn, indebtedness, succession, death, separation, the arrival of a new generation, or the need for capital, what had merely been hidden begins to compromise operations, credit, reputation and, often, the very continuity of the business.
This is precisely the point at which the crisis stops being merely financial and becomes structural.
Preserving the company requires more than traditional legal solutions
Advising companies in crisis, especially in environments marked by succession disputes, requires understanding that preserving the business does not depend solely on legal filings, contracts or court proceedings.
It depends on reorganising decisions, negotiations, responsibilities, risks and expectations.
It depends on creating mechanisms that keep the company running even when the partners disagree, the family is divided, or cash is tight.
In this context, instruments such as shareholder agreements, family charters, succession planning, corporate reorganisation, baseline governance, exit rules, profit-distribution policies, asset protection and clearly defined decision-making authority should not be viewed as mere legal bureaucracy.
They are, in fact, tools for business survival.
Governance is not a luxury. It is protection.
In today's business environment, governance should not be seen as a topic reserved for large corporate groups.
It is a tool for protection, continuity and stability.
Companies do not fail only for lack of money. They often fail for lack of agreement, lack of negotiation, conflicts among heirs, unclear leadership, or the inability to build even a minimal consensus for decision-making.
That is why adopting governance mechanisms is not merely a preventive measure. It is a strategy aimed at preserving the estate, the business itself, and the relationships that sustain it.
The challenge of building companies that outlive their founders
At Petereit Advogados Associados, our work is focused precisely on protecting companies through moments of instability, conflict and restructuring.
The goal is to allow a crisis to be faced with method, strategy and courage, before it turns into a permanent rupture.
After all, when a crisis is born within the company itself — or within the business family itself — the first step to overcoming it is recognising that governance is not a formality.
Governance is what allows a company to outlive its founders, weather inevitable conflicts, and continue to exist beyond the people who built it.
Ricardo Petereit
Founding Partner of Petereit Advogados Associados
OAB/RJ 133,676 | OAB/SP 545,686
