Should I pay my kid CEO more than I ever paid myself?

Yes. Kris Kluver, in The Dysfunctional Family Office, has Ryan tell Robert Mitchell directly. Founders typically undercompensate themselves, reinvesting everything into growth. That worked for the founder because the founder's economics were tied to ownership, not salary. The next-generation CEO is in a different position. They are running the company as a professional CEO, not as a founder. They need to be compensated like one, with a market-rate salary and performance bonus, even if the founder never paid themselves that way. The reframe is hard for many founders. The salary feels disproportionate to what they earned. The salary isn't disproportionate. The founder was just under-paying themselves for decades. The market rate for the role is what the role actually costs. Pay it. The professional CEO outcome depends on it.