You and your spouse have spent decades working hard, building up a thriving business, and making the right investments to build your family’s wealth. Now that you’re aging gracefully into your twilight years and approaching retirement age, you know it’s time to ensure that your estate plan includes strategies for preserving the wealth from your business so it can continue to benefit your family for generations to come.
A business succession plan is about more than just choosing who to put in charge of your business after you retire. Rather, business succession planning strategies run the gamut of all the ways to protect and preserve the wealth that your business represents for you, your children, and your current and future grandchildren.
In our new free digital resource, our experts in family wealth preservation provide a business owner’s guide to succession planning—a comprehensive overview of how to get the most out of the wealth your business has built up over the years and ensure that it does the most good for your family.
Choosing the Right Family Business Succession Planning Strategies
A business creates wealth for its owner in two ways—by distributing assets from the business to the owner over the course of its operation, or by being sold to a new owner. In either case, the business is still a source of wealth for your family. In our business succession planning guide, we’ll help you understand the many options at your disposal to preserve, protect, and ultimately continue to grow this wealth for the benefit of your family long after you’re gone.
Download Our Free Business Succession Planning eBook
By taking business succession into account, a comprehensive estate plan can safeguard your business interest and ensure a smooth transition in the event of your incapacity or passing by making it clear what your wishes are for your business and how your wishes are to be carried out.
In our latest eBook, Wealth Protection and Peace of Mind: A Comprehensive Guide to Estate Planning for Business Owners and Family Providers, you’ll get our insights into:
- A general overview of the importance of estate planning and family wealth preservation, including the risks of not having a comprehensive estate plan, how families can lose their inherited wealth, and how estate planning ensures that your assets are protected and distributed in the best interests of your children and future descendants
- How to assess your current financial and business situation, including a general overview of how business assets are distributed when someone passes away
- How to navigate business succession planning for businesses with multiple owners, including what to do when you and your spouse are co-owners and how to effectively use a buy-sell agreement when the business partners are not part of your family
- How to structure and time your business for transfer, including the advantages and disadvantages of transferring ownership and control during your lifetime or waiting until death
- The roles that various taxes play in the transfer of business ownership, including estate taxes, gift taxes, and capital gains taxes, and information on how to minimize tax burdens
- Various business succession planning strategies, such as buy-sell agreements, gradual transfers, installment sales, employee stock ownership plans and buy-ins, or gifting to family members
- Under which circumstances selling your business might be a better wealth preservation strategy, such as a lack of qualified successors, a need to diversify family assets, desire for liquidity, maximization of value, conflict avoidance, or business growth
- How to mitigate potential legal challenges that can arise in business succession, such as valuation disputes, tax and regulation compliance, valuation disputes, creditor and debt issues, or third-party contracts and obligations
- Why you should keep your estate plan updated and maintained for a smooth transfer of business ownership
Ensuring Family Wealth Preservation and Peace of Mind with MHPS Law
Ultimately, including family business succession planning strategies in your estate plan about two things: preserving the legacy your business and hard-earned wealth represents, and providing security and peace of mind to your descendants.
With a comprehensive, personalized estate plan, you can ensure that your wishes for your wealth and the family business are conveyed and executed smoothly and with minimal challenges and difficulties.
At MHPS Law, our estate planning and wealth preservation specialists bring personal attention, compassion, honesty, and comprehensive expertise in Tennessee law toward helping you protect your wealth, provide financially for your descendants, and ensure that your business can continue to grow and succeed long after you are gone.
Now is the best time to take steps and plan for your exit from your business with tailored business succession planning strategies. Contact us today to schedule an appointment with our estate law experts.
