Family Business Succession Planning: Protect Your Legacy
Owning a family business comes with unique challenges and rich rewards. It takes a special family—and strong relationships—to venture down this path of twists and turns together. For family business owners, planning for the company’s future is especially important. While it’s an easy task to push off for later, losing key leadership without a business succession plan in place can have a devastating impact on the business itself, as well as on the family members and employees.
Business succession planning is essential to protecting the financial future of the business that you’ve worked so hard to grow. It’s a legally binding document—or set of documents—that establishes the framework for how your business can continue to operate, grow, and thrive once you’re no longer at the helm.
Whether you choose to ease your way into retirement or to make a complete exit on a specific date, a succession plan allows you to retain some control over how the business is operated—the business that you built. And, should the unthinkable occur and you pass away unexpectedly, having a succession plan in place ensures that the business continues with minimal interruption, protecting not only your business but your family and dedicated employees as well.
The business succession planning process should include discussion of:
- Transition timing
- Identifying successors
- Business valuation
- Communication with employees, customers, and involved family members
- Tax planning
- A buy-sell agreement
- Contingency planning
Finally—and this is key—your business succession plan needs to work in hand-in-hand with your estate plan.
Family business succession plans are complex and must be tailored to the needs that are unique to the family business. If you don’t have a business succession plan in place or want to review your existing plan to ensure it provides the protection you need, call Wilson Law PLC today at 866-603-5976 to set up a complimentary meeting or fill out our contact form and we’ll call you to schedule a meeting.
