Courtesy of Jason Ackerman
Running a business with your sibling sounds like a recipe for disaster. One wrong step, and you risk both your company and your relationship. But for me and my brother, Adam, it’s been the opposite. Co-founding and running two companies together has brought us closer and made our businesses stronger.
Together, we co-lead BNA, a tax and wealth advisory firm based in North Carolina. We also recently launched WealthRabbit, a fintech platform that simplifies retirement planning. Despite juggling multiple ventures and responsibilities, we’ve not only stayed aligned but also grown stronger as partners and brothers.
We’ve had to navigate difficult conversations, unexpected crises, and the daily pressure of making joint decisions about people, clients, and strategy. But we’ve found that with clear structure and a shared sense of purpose, it’s possible to make it work.
These are the three rules we swear by to make it all happen.
Know your lane and stay in it
The biggest mistake people make when starting a business — especially family-run businesses — is not clearly dividing responsibility.
So, our biggest key to success is this: Agree on what you’re each good at, and stick to it.
For instance, at BNA, I focus on operations, client strategy, and growing the tax side of the business. Adam leads the wealth management arm, where his background in personal finance and investment strategy shines.
At WealthRabbit, I lead partnerships and position the product for other CPAs, while Adam oversees investment portfolio selections and advisor education.
This isn’t about avoiding overlap, it’s about playing to each other’s strengths. When you each know your lane and expertise, you waste less time double-checking decisions or stepping on each other’s toes. If something ever does feel off, we address it directly — which brings me to our next principle.
Communication isn’t optional; it’s our operating system
We’ve learned the hard way that even the closest brothers can’t read each other’s minds. That’s why we talk. A lot.
We have daily check-ins for each business. We share financials transparently, leverage technology, and share information or ideas religiously.
If one of us is frustrated or confused, we say so early, before it becomes a bigger problem.
That level of candor has kept our relationships strong even through high-stress moments, like launching WealthRabbit the same week one of our co-founders suddenly died. We didn’t have the luxury of falling apart. We had to keep the business moving, support our team, and honor his legacy by executing the vision.
In those moments, communication isn’t just about keeping the business on track; it’s about preserving the relationship. We’re business partners, yes. But we’re also brothers, and when things get hard (and they do), that bond is what gets us through.
Don’t scale for the sake of it; build with purpose
There’s a myth in entrepreneurship that bigger is always better. That if you’re not chasing the next round, the next product launch, or the next market, you’re falling behind. That’s not how we operate.
We’re building businesses that matter to us — ones that support our families, serve our clients, and solve real problems. BNA gives us the opportunity to work with large institutions, individuals, and business owners we genuinely care about.
From that experience, WealthRabbit was born out of a pain point we saw every tax season: small business owners asked for help setting up retirement plans, and we did all the legwork — for free — while traditional financial advisors collected the assets and the fees. We knew there had to be a better way, so we built one.
Every major move, whether it’s launching a new product or opening a new office, gets filtered through that lens. Do we both believe in it? Does it move us closer to our vision? Is it something we’d still be proud of five years from now? If the answer isn’t yes, we don’t do it.
Running a business with your sibling isn’t easy, but with mutual respect, clear roles, open communication, and shared values, it can be a powerful force.
Jason Ackerman, CPA, CFP, CGMA, is the cofounder of WealthRabbit and managing partner of BNA, a tax and wealth advisory firm based in North Carolina. Connect on LinkedIn.
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