From in the business to on the business

Redesigning family roles by 2035

KPMG’s Global family business survey 2026 found that family businesses worldwide are reassessing the family’s relationship and engagement with their business. In Australia, family businesses are moving from a focus on management in the business to a focus on ownership, control and governance of the business.

Across Australia and the broader Asia-Pacific (ASPAC) region, family businesses are separating the family’s role to focus on ownership away from management. The KPMG Global family business survey 2026 showed 84% of Australian and ASPAC respondents expect to change their business model and structure by 2035. It’s a shift from family-run operating businesses to family-owned enterprises that are governed by boards and led by professional management, and Australia is moving as fast as its global peers, if not faster.

Key Australian insights

By 2035, 84% of Australian and ASPAC family-owned and managed businesses expect to change their business model and structure to focus on professional management, overseen by a family board.
Australia’s family-owned and managed share is projected to fall from 53% today to just 9% by 2035, a steeper decline than the global shift from 49% to 12%.
Professional management with family board oversight, and holding company structures over multiple businesses, are set to more than double in Australia, rising in combination from 25% to 53%.
A blended family/non-family leadership model is expected to be most common (43% in Australia, 40% globally) over the next decade.
First-generation and second-generation owners lean toward more non-family leadership, while third-generation-plus owners lean back toward family control, a divergence worth watching during periods of transition.

Detailed analysis: Australian family businesses

Changing the business structure
Operating model changes
Generational tension

The scale of the shift

Of the 53% of Australian family businesses that identify as family-owned and family-managed that figure is projected to fall to just 9% by 2035, a steeper decline than the global movement from 49% to 12%. In its place, professional management with family board oversight and multi-business holding company structures are expected to more than double in combination, rising from 25% to 53% of Australian respondents. This is not a marginal adjustment; it is a redesign of what family ownership means in practice.

On the board, not on the tools

As the operating model changes, so does the shape of leadership. A blended model of family and non-family senior leaders is expected to be most common, at 43% of Australian businesses versus 40% globally. Non-family professionals are expected to hold most senior roles in 35% of Australian businesses, while family members are expected to retain the majority of leadership positions in 21% of cases in Australia, close to the 24% global figure.

A generational tension worth watching

Beneath this broad alignment lies a more interesting divergence. First-generation and second-generation Australian businesses anticipate greater non-family participation in leadership than the population (38% versus 35%). Third-generation-plus businesses, however, anticipate the opposite and are expecting family members to retain most of the leadership positions at a considerably higher rate than the overall population (38% versus 21%). As ownership matures, some families appear to be reasserting leadership ambition even as the operating model professionalises around them. Family boards will need to navigate the competing tensions between family leadership and management carefully, rather than assume it will resolve itself.

Preparation, mindset change, and strong governance frameworks for both the business and the family will underpin this evolution. The family businesses best positioned for 2035 will treat the decade ahead not as a series of separate decisions, but as one deliberately governed transition from working in the business to governing it.

Robyn Langsford

Partner and National Lead

KPMG Australia

Changing the operating model: consequences for current owners

A change in operating model is rarely only a capital or governance question. Families weighing this shift should also consider the following issues.

Define the family’s future role as owners, governors, operators, or investors; test whether family members are ready to step back from daily operations; and document the agreed purpose of ongoing family involvement.

Establish clear, merit-based entry and progression criteria for family members seeking operational roles, including qualifications, experience requirements, reporting lines, and performance expectations.

Create or refresh a family council, constitution, or charter to separate family governance from business governance while keeping both aligned on purpose, values, decision rights, and communication protocols.

Seek early tax and legal advice before adopting holding company, multi-entity, or cross-border structures; map regulatory obligations; and assess consequences for ownership, succession, asset protection and capital flows.

Develop a professional leadership value proposition, clarify how non-family executives will be empowered, and codify the family values and cultural behaviours that should be preserved as management professionalises.

Review risk, compliance, financial reporting, and board-pack processes against the expectations of independent directors, lenders, investors, or other capital partners; then close any capability or control gaps.

Run structured family discussions on why the model is changing, what roles may change, how benefits and responsibilities will shift, and how different generations can align around the future relationship with the business.

Professionalise governance before pursuing major capital, ownership, or structural change so the family approaches negotiations from a position of readiness rather than urgency.

Key takeaways

The move from operating the business to owning and governing it is now the majority expectation, not a minority view, across Australia and ASPAC.
Australia’s structural transition is proceeding as fast as, or faster than, the global average, leaving less time than many boards may assume to prepare.
Generational expectations are not necessarily uniform. Earlier generations lean towards broader non-family leadership, while longer-established owners lean back toward family control: this divergence needs to be surfaced and resolved deliberately.

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