When you’ve poured your heart and soul—not to mention long hours and weekends—into a business, it becomes a part of you. You want to provide for the health and success of your business just like you would a family member. This is where business succession planning comes in.
A Wexford business succession planning lawyer handles the full spectrum of estate planning issues, including the future leadership of the business. Our experienced estate planning attorneys could help guide you through the process of planning for what will happen to your family-owned business when you are no longer at the helm.
It is never too early to start thinking about how to transfer ownership and management of a business—and a Wexford business succession planning attorney could help with all aspects of the process. The more streamlined things are, the more smoothly things will run when you stop overseeing the day-to-day operations because of retirement or incapacity.
An enterprise is more likely to fail without a business succession plan. When nobody has been trained to take over, systems break down, customers lose confidence, and family squabbles throw things off-course.
One of the first items for discussion is whether you want the business to continue, either with a family member in charge or someone else you may sell the enterprise to. In other cases, you might decide that liquidation and wind-up is the better alternative.
Factors to consider include whether there is anyone in the family who wants (and is qualified) to take over, and whether you need to sell the business or its assets to finance your retirement.
Whichever path you plan to take, you need to decide when to put it into action. If you wait too long to make a decision, your family could be forced to liquidate the business simply to pay taxes and other costs involved with probate.
From a strategic perspective, your estate could potentially benefit from tax savings generated from smaller gifts of the business during your lifetime. Other tax strategies, such as the establishment of trust accounts or possible application of the qualified family-owned business interest exemption, might also apply.
A skilled lawyer could provide a Wexford business owner with insight about the business succession process and help draft the operative planning documents needed for the transfer, sale, or wind-up of the enterprise.
If you desire to keep the business going, it is important to plan for who will take over ownership and management when you step down. These two roles could go to the same person, but is not required. If there are family dynamics at play that make this a sensitive topic, address them ahead of time. There are ways to set things up, so children can share the economic benefit of the business even if they are not co-managing it.
In any case, procedures should be in place, so the new manager can be trained and fully integrated when the time comes. A lapse in competent leadership can quickly get out of control and adversely impact the business’s viability. A Wexford business succession planning attorney could collaborate with you to help ensure transfer of control is as seamless as possible, so the new leader can hit the ground running when the time comes.
Building a successful business is part of the America Dream. You want to do everything you can to make sure your efforts continue to thrive when you are no longer captain of the ship. You also want to make sure your family is taken care of and that you have sufficient resources to comfortably retire. These are all considerations that drive the business succession planning process.
A Wexford business succession planning lawyer could help immensely. We have the resources and knowledge you need to secure the future of your business and your family. Contact us for a consultation today.
