Your business is your life's work. While most businesses don't survive long after a change in leadership, Stark & Stark's Business Succession Planning Group assists its clients in establishing a plan to ensure their business' continuation and helps to maximize the return for the founders of the business.

Business succession planning is an investment in the future of your business for the owners, employees and clients. Planning is the key to future success for everyone whose efforts have helped the business to grow. The existence of a succession plan emphasizes your commitment to your business's long-term growth and creates confidence with customers, lenders, employees and key suppliers.

The Process

Developing a succession plan is a multi-phase process that begins with the reorganization of equity, updating wills and trusts and reviewing existing insurance policies. Next, Buy Sell Agreements are drafted, compensation procedures are reviewed and an advisory board will be established which will strategize, design and implement employee incentive plans. The process involves the counsel of independent professionals who contribute objectivity, specialized skills and experience. Stark & Stark maintains close working relationships with some of the most skilled financial planners, accountants, and bankers dedicated to assisting our clients in reaching their retirement goals.

Once a succession plan has been established, it is critically important that the completed plan be continually reviewed and updated as circumstances change. Business succession plans outline in detail the who, what, when, why, and how changes in ownership and management are to be executed.

Business Preservation and Protection

Because each business owner's concerns are unique, we create plans that give our clients comfort knowing their business is prepared to adapt to change. Working closely with our clients, we identify goals and objectives, potential pitfalls and develop innovative solutions.

An attorney with sufficient expertise and experience is essential. For over 70 years, Stark & Stark's Succession Planning Group has advised clients in the areas of income taxation, contract law, estate planning, transfer taxation, corporate and other entity governance, debtor and creditor law, lien preferences, asset protection, pension law, employment law and dispute resolution. Stark & Stark attorneys have the advantage of a multi-disciplinary approach to client service that is cost-effective and expedites the coordination of the expertise required for the business succession plan.

Business Succession Planning Group Experience

Our Business Succession Planning Group has created succession plans for virtually every kind of businesses nationwide including:

Plan for Success

Wealth preservation and protection require an appreciation of the current and future needs of our clients and of those individuals who depend on them. Multi-generational business planning requires cutting-edge legal and tax planning techniques and an appreciation of the human dynamics involved in intra-family matters. For over seventy years, our clients have relied on Stark & Stark to help them make prudent business, financial, and personal decisions.