Succession Planning
Integral to the overall operation of a successful family business, succession planning comes with its own set of challenges. We apply our five generations of legal knowledge to help map a succession strategy that addresses your unique situation. Our team navigates the complexities of succession planning to devise a plan to smoothly transition your family-owned business from one generation to the next. Your family business is your legacy. Protect and keep it alive for generations to come by proactively planning for the future
How We Work
Our approach looks beyond checking the boxes to evaluating the assets and liabilities of your business, the capabilities and interests of the next generation, and the shifting contexts of business itself. We combine an assessment of your business with an overall plan for your estate. In sync with your goals, we seek to preserve wealth for future generations by maintaining assets and leveraging tax-effective strategies to transition a business from one generation to the next and continue to build a solid foundation for future business growth.
Succession Planning for Business
The firm’s transactional lawyers blend their broad-based experience in business and finance to help entrepreneurs and owners of closely held companies plan for business succession. We restructure entities, guide inter-familial sales, negotiate corporate and partnership buy-sell agreements, draft and negotiate pre and post-marital agreements, and develop strategies to compensate non-participating family members to ensure that the core bonds of family remain strong and wealth transfer needs are met without compromising ongoing business goals.
The Business Life Cycle
In the ongoing race for survival faced by all business entities, family-owned businesses have the deck stacked against them. We help even the odds, and offer options starting with a blueprint for how a business, its owners and its employees will move through and beyond a transfer of power. Succession plans can be used to cement a family business’ legacy even when there are no heirs interested in taking over someday, or no heirs at all.
Our Toolkit
We generally start with a thorough review of each aspect of the business, including input from people within the company as well as outside it. Our assessment takes into account family members’ ideas, goals, and shared purpose as future owners of the business. We then develop legal protections for your estate, including a will, trust, durable power of attorney, and related tools to manage your estate and in some cases avoid or limit probate, inheritance, and estate taxes.
Care and Maintenance
No one knows what the future holds, you will need periodically revisit and revise your succession plan to ensure that it expresses the expectations of family members and employees, and meets the needs of the business moving forward.
To learn more, please read our blog post on Business Succession Planning. For a free consultation about the best succession and estate planning tools for your situation, contact us today.