परिवार भी, व्यापार भी
Keep the family. Keep the business.
Mediation, succession advisory and the Family Alignment Scan for India's family-owned businesses. We find the disagreements a family hasn't spoken about yet, and help resolve them privately, before they reach a courtroom.
"It is already clear who will lead next."
Silent gap"Daughters should receive the same share as sons."
Silent gap"A mediator should come in before lawyers."
Alignedvirāsat (noun): inheritance, legacy, what one generation hands to the next. A family business carries a name, relationships built over decades, and the hopes of people who share a dining table as well as a balance sheet. Our work is to help it pass on whole.
Most family disputes start as a disagreement nobody said out loud.
A founder believes the succession is settled. A son is quietly planning to leave. A daughter assumes she has been left out. Each one thinks the others agree, until an illness, a death or a marriage brings it into the open.
of Indian family businesses lack clear handover directions, against 28% globally.
PwC Global Family Business Survey, 2026of Indian heirs feel obliged to take over the family business, while most founders plan to pass it to family.
HSBC Global Private Banking, 2025in Indian family wealth is expected to change hands over the next decade.
EY–Julius BaerWills and trusts settle who gets what. They don't tell you whether the family agrees.
The Family Alignment Scan
Every adult family member answers the same 40 questions privately, in English, Tamil or Hindi. We compare the answers and show the family where it agrees, where it openly differs, and where it differs without knowing it.
Meet the founder
A private conversation to agree who answers and to explain the privacy promise.
Everyone answers
20–25 minutes on a phone. Each person also guesses how the other generation will answer key questions.
The alignment map
We score eight dimensions and flag every silent gap. Nobody's individual answers are shown.
Facilitated debrief
First with the founder, then with the whole family, with a mediator in the room.
The family broadly agrees. Protect this, and build the family charter on it.
They disagree and know it. This needs a structured, mediated conversation.
They disagree, but each side assumes agreement. This is where disputes are born.
Sample alignment map
Family alignment index 56/100Tap any dimension to see one of its questions. Sample data from a fictional textile trading family in Salem, for illustration only.
Our privacy promise to every family member
- No one sees anyone else's individual answers.
- Results are grouped as senior and next generation, never by name.
- Open-ended answers are read only by the mediator and never quoted.
- Raw answers are deleted once the report is final, unless the family asks us to keep them.
Is your family carrying a silent gap?
Six questions for a founder or family member. Your answers stay in your browser; nothing is sent to us.
Prevent. Resolve. Conclude.
Each engagement is shaped around the family, the business structure and the legal position. We work alongside your chartered accountant and lawyer, not in place of them.
Prevent
For families who want to get ahead of the hard conversations.
Family Alignment ScanDiagnostic · all adult members
Private answers from every family member, an alignment map across eight dimensions, and a mediated family debrief. The best place to start.
Succession and legacy planningTransition · next generation
Facilitated conversations about handing over leadership and ownership before a crisis forces the issue: roles for the next generation, timelines, and the founder's role after the handover.
Family charters and governanceFamily constitution · family council
A written agreement on how decisions are made, who may join the business, how pay and withdrawals work, and how disputes will be handled, drafted together with your lawyer.
Resolve
Confidential mediation that protects both the business and the relationships.
Family business dispute mediationSiblings · cousins · generations
Disagreements over management roles, profit sharing, drawings, family members' employment, or the direction of the business. We help each side say what they need and reach a workable agreement.
Inheritance and partition disputesHUF · wills · intestate succession
Disputes over ancestral property, HUF assets and business shares after a death or a partition demand, handled with attention to succession law and tax consequences.
Partnership and shareholder disputesFirms · LLPs · private companies
Deadlocks between partners or shareholders, exits, valuation disagreements and buy-outs, with financial analysis the parties can trust.
Matrimonial property and business interestsHigh financial complexity
When a separation involves a family business, shares or shared assets, mediation can settle the financial questions with discretion and less damage to the business.
Conclude
So the family is never left without an outcome.
Med-ArbMediation, then a binding decision
Where all parties agree in advance, issues left unresolved after mediation can move to a binding arbitral decision. Mediation always comes first. The arbitrator is always a separate, independent professional, never the mediator who heard the family, and this step happens only with everyone's prior written consent.
Talks and workshopsAssociations · CA bodies · colleges
Sessions on succession, family governance and resolving conflict without litigation, in English, Tamil, Hindi or Marwari.
A clear, confidential process
Every family is different, but most mediations move through the same four stages.
First conversation
A confidential call or meeting to understand the situation, explain mediation and check that it suits your family.
Individual meetings
Private sessions with each party to understand their concerns, interests and what a fair outcome looks like to them.
Joint sessions
Structured discussions, with advisers present when useful, to explore options, test the numbers and narrow the differences.
Settlement agreement
The terms are written up as a mediated settlement agreement, which each party reviews with their own advisers before signing.
Under India's Mediation Act, 2023, mediation is confidential, and a signed mediated settlement agreement is final and binding on the parties and enforceable like a court judgment. You decide the outcome; nothing is imposed on you in mediation.
We have sat on your side of the table.
Most mediators know family business disputes as neutral outsiders. Our founder spent about seventeen years inside a family retail business before becoming a mediator.
Lived business experience
Shared accounts, unwritten roles, elders' expectations, and what is at stake when the next generation wants change. We have lived it.
Financial fluency
Finance training means we read the numbers behind most family disputes, including valuations, capital accounts and tax implications, and explain them plainly to everyone at the table.
Coaching-trained listening
As an ICF Professional Certified Coach, the founder helps each family member move from fixed positions to the underlying interests where agreement becomes possible.
Your language, your culture
Sessions in English, Tamil, Hindi or Marwari, with real familiarity with Marwari and trading-community families and their traditions.
Sunil Parmar
Sunil founded Virasat MedArb in 2026 to bring together what family businesses rarely find in one person: the experience of running a family enterprise, financial training, and professional mediation and coaching skills.
He teaches at The Central Law College, Salem, where he convenes the Mediation Committee and leads the Centre for Mediation & Arbitration (CEMA). He also trains professionals and students in mediation and soft skills.
- MediationIIAM-accredited ADR mediator; member, Indian Mediation Federation
- CoachingICF Professional Certified Coach (PCC)
- FinanceExecutive MBA (Finance), IIT Patna (in progress)
- Estate & successionSTEP credential
- BusinessAbout 17 years in a family retail business
- AcademiaFaculty, The Central Law College, Salem
Families, and the advisers who serve them
Business families
Founders, spouses, siblings and next-generation members of family-owned firms, trading houses and HUF businesses.
Chartered accountants and lawyers
Professionals who see a client family heading towards conflict and want a neutral, finance-literate mediator to refer them to.
Offer the Family Alignment Scan to your client families. Ask about our adviser partnership.
Business and community associations
Talks and workshops on succession, family governance and resolving conflict without litigation.
Before you get in touch
Is everything confidential?
Yes. Mediation under the Mediation Act, 2023 is confidential, and the scan follows our privacy promise: no one sees another person's answers, and results are grouped by generation, never by name.
Do we still need our lawyer and CA?
Yes. We work alongside them. Each party reviews any settlement or charter with their own advisers before signing, and your CA helps us with the numbers.
What if one family member doesn't want to take part?
Mediation is voluntary, so nobody is forced. Often a first private conversation is enough for a hesitant member to see that the process protects their interests too. The scan needs at least three respondents.
Is the scan legal or financial advice?
No. The scan is a conversation tool that shows where the family agrees and differs. Legal, tax and financial decisions stay with your advisers.
Can sessions happen online or in our city?
Yes. We are based in Salem, Tamil Nadu, and work in person across India and online.
How are fees set?
Each engagement has a fee agreed in writing before work starts, based on the size of the family and the complexity of the matter. The first conversation is confidential and carries no obligation.
Start with a confidential conversation
Tell us briefly what is happening. We will reply to arrange a first conversation. What you share stays confidential.