Roberts Real Estate Case

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Case 2: Roberts Real Estate
In late 2012, Adam Roberts is now the CEO and Managing Director of the Roberts Real Estate Company. The company is a multi-million-dollar property management firm that was founded in Akron, Ohio, in 1920 by Adams grandfather, Jim Roberts. After receiving a call from Adam’s dad, Brian, Adam started wondering about the future of the company; the transfer of power, the estate plan and if his dad would give shares to his daughter Julie and what her role might be, if that happened.
Brian’s father, Jim, started a retail shoe business in the 1930s. After disagreements with his brother-in-law, Jim left the business with ownership of one building in West Bend, Indiana. That shoe store later burned down and Jim made the owner …show more content…

After the buying of the land, Jim brought in Brian and he started working on leasing out properties. Brian worked part-time for Roberts Real Estate as he attended law school in 1966. Jim, retiring at the age of 53 from being an attorney because of a heart condition, gave Brian fully responsibilities while he was in his thirties. In the late eighties, Jim transferred ownership of Roberts Real Estate Company to both Brian and his daughter, Kathy, in a 50/50 split. However, Brian ran the company by himself and his sister, Kathy, was never involved with the company but Brian let her keep her half of the company. In 2005, Brian invited Kathy’s son, Karl, to join the company while he attended law school at Ohio State University just like Brian did. However, their relationship didn’t last very long and Karl left the company …show more content…

Brian sees that Adam can continue with the company successfully and this is way he is giving him more and more responsibility.
From Adam’s perspective, I think Brian’s role should not be as chair of the board or owner of Roberts Real Estate, he should now be more as a mentor for Adam. I think it is time to give those positions to Adam because he is basically giving him fully responsibility, for example, he has already delegated decision-making capabilities and day-to-day to operations to him. Also, by leaving Brian in these higher positions, it could potentially hold back Adam from growing the company because his dad might still be stuck in the old ways.
From Adam’s perspective, I think that Julie should get some shares as part of her inheritance but not that many, maybe a 90/10 split, because it doesn’t seem like she has much interest to join the company and will probably not be working for the company. However, if she does one day choose to join the company and contribute to its success, then she should be given more

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