Business Planning

Small Business Succession Planning: Building a Team of Professionals Every small business needs a succession plan, but most don’t have one. One reason why many small-business owners haven’t gotten around to succession planning—even if they realize they need it—is that they aren’t sure where to start. Well, one good starting point is to build a team of professional advisors to help you craft a succession plan that is well-suited to yourself and your business. Depending on your budget and the complexity of your business and finances, here’s who you might want to include in that team: Accountant An accountant will [...]

Nine Things All Business Owners Must Know About Estate Planning It’s never too soon to begin estate planning, especially if you are a small business owner. It’s likely that a great deal of your wealth and that of your family is tied up in your business. Should you die or become incapacitated without a plan for your business in place, your family may suffer significant financial loss and legal burdens. When you die or retire, do you want to terminate your business, pass it down to the next generation or sell it? Are you a sole owner or a partner [...]

One theme I regularly explore on this blog is the need for small-business owners to have a succession plan. One of my earliest posts on the subject explored three options for how an owner could deal with a small business in his or her estate plan: (1) pass it on to his or her children; (2) sell it to a business partner; or (3) sell it to a third party. Unsurprisingly, that post just scratched the surface. Today, I want to discuss another option for small-business owners that recently got a boost from Congress: transferring the business to employees under [...]

All Small Business Owners Need a Succession Plan; Most Don’t Have One Estate planning is an important project for every American (and for foreigners who want to invest in America). But it’s especially important for small-business owners. The typical small-business owner’s entire income depends on his or her business succeeding. If something happens to the owner, the business could fail, and the owner or his or her family could seriously suffer as a result. Yet, despite the importance of succession planning for small business owners, a recent survey conducted by the Wilmington Trust revealed that only a minority of business [...]