Succession Planning

Succession Planning for Business Owners

As a business owner, here are a series of important and relevant questions for your consideration. If you know all the answers to these questions, our compliments to you for being proactive in getting your business and personal financial lives organized on a comprehensive basis. If you have not answered these questions for yourself, let’s talk about how you can do that in your own way:

• As a business owner, have you prepared for the biggest financial event of your life?
• Are you wondering how to groom a successor?
• Is passing your company on to your children becoming increasingly unlikely? Or, is one or more already working in the business, and one or more are not, and you want to equalize the effects for all of` your children in your overall estate plan?
• Would you like company insiders to take over when you decide to phase out?
• Would you rather plan for a third party sale, take the cash and move on?
• What is your own personal time horizon for transferring title to the business?
• In your best estimation, is your industry experiencing consolidation from large competitors?
• Did you know there are investment banking firms that focus on closely-held businesses that can facilitate a transaction for you in selling your closely-held business?
• Have you identified a list of potential buyers that might be suitable for your company some day?
• Do you know how much your business is worth today, in cash ? When was the last time you had an independent valuation performed on your business, if ever? Who did the valuation and why? Do you agree with the result? If not, why?