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  • The Stark & Stark Business Succession Planning practice assists small business, closely held corporations, individuals and families throughout New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania in establishing a plan to ensure their business’ continuation and helping to maximize a return for the founders of the business.

    Our business attorneys work with clients to review key corporate documents including operating agreements, corporate books, partnership agreements, wills, trusts and buy-sell agreements.

    Business Succession Planning Services

    Our Business Succession Planning attorneys provide planning services that integrate all your business interests, family estate planning goals, strategic tax needs and retirement plan objectives. We view succession planning as an investment in the future of your business and firmly believe the existence of a succession plan emphasizes your commitment to your business’s long-term growth, creating confidence with customers, lenders, employees and key suppliers. Our focus is in designing and implementing a succession plan to preserve, protect and transfer assets before any unexpected crisis occurs demanding an immediate response to complex legal, tax, business and health care decisions.

    Client-Driven Approach

    Developing a succession plan is a multi-phase process that begins with the reorganization of equity, updating of wills and trusts and a review of existing insurance policies. Next, Buy-Sell Agreements are drafted, compensation procedures are reviewed and an advisory board is established to 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 to be executed.

    Business Preservation and Protection

    Because each business owner’s concerns are unique, we create plans that give our clients the comfort of knowing their business is prepared to adapt to change. Working closely with our clients, we identify goals and objectives, potential pitfalls and innovative solutions. For over 70 years, Stark & Stark’s Succession Planning Group has provided clients a legal service that is cost-effective and expedites the coordination of the expertise required for each business succession plan, including but not limited to:

    • 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
    • Dispute resolution

    Business Succession Planning Group Experience

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

    • Physicians
    • Physical Therapists
    • Law Firms
    • Architects
    • Accounting Firms
    • Investment Advisory Firms
    • Lobbyists
    • Real Estate Developers
    • Regional Construction Firms
    • Engineers
    • Marketing and Design Firms
    • E-communication Firms
    • Veterinarians
    • Marketing Communications

    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. Our attorneys work with clients to develop a plan in order to avoid ownership and control disputes among family members and shareholders upon a business owner’s retirement or untimely death. Once a plan has been developed and approved, our attorneys then work closely with each individual client in order to implement those goals in the most timely and cost effective manner.

    Additional Services

    Key Contacts

    John P. Maloney
    609.219.7404
    John P. Maloney

    John P. Maloney

    Shareholder
    609.219.7404
    Allen M. Silk

    Allen M. Silk

    Of Counsel
    609.895.7265
    Rachel Lilienthal Stark

    Rachel Lilienthal Stark

    Shareholder
    609.895.7348
    Legal Insights for Individuals & Families
    March 26, 2026
    For many business owners in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, the company you’ve built over the years represents far more than a line item on a balance...
    Firm News
    March 15, 2021
    Stark & Stark is pleased to welcome new attorney, John P. Maloney, Esq., to the firm. Mr. Maloney is joining Stark & Starks Business &...

    Firm Highlights

    Stark & Stark Shareholder Deborah S. Dunn, Esq. Installed as 2nd Vice President and Diversity Officer of the New Jersey Association for Justice for 2026–2027

    Stark & Stark is proud to announce that Shareholder Deborah S. Dunn, Esq. has been installed as 2nd Vice President and Diversity Officer of the...

    Stark & Stark Recognized with Community Partner Award by Mercer County Community College Foundation

    Stark & Stark is proud to announce that the firm has been recognized with the Community Partner Award by the Mercer County Community College...

    Carin A. O’Donnell, Esq. Inducted as 2026-2027 President of the Pennsylvania Association for Justice

    Stark & Stark is proud to announce that Carin A. O'Donnell, Esq. was sworn in as the 2026-2027 President of the Pennsylvania Association for...

    Stark & Stark’s Thomas S. Onder, Esq. Receives 2026 ICSC Trustees’ Distinguished Service Award

    Stark & Stark is proud to announce that Thomas S. Onder, Esq., Shareholder and Chair of the Firm’s Shopping Center & Retail Development...

    Stark & Stark’s Joseph H. Lemkin Esq., Named 2026 Professional Lawyer of the Year for the Jewish Bar Association of New Jersey

    Stark & Stark is proud to announce that Joseph H. Lemkin Esq. has been selected by the New Jersey Commission on Professionalism in the Law as...

    Our Values Remain: A Message on the Closing of Diversity Lab

    Stark & Stark is saddened and disappointed to learn that Diversity Lab, the organization that created and manages the Mansfield Certification...

    Congratulations to Shareholder Bhaveen R. Jani, Esq. on his Installation as Treasurer of the Middlesex County Bar Foundation

    Stark & Stark is proud to announce that Shareholder Bhaveen R. Jani, Esq. has been installed as Treasurer of the Middlesex County Bar Foundation,...

    Denise Mariani, Esq., and Jonathan Lauri, Esq. Secure $750,000 Jury Verdict Against Hamilton Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center

    It is our pleasure to announce that Denise Mariani, Esq., and Jonathan Lauri, Esq., secured a $750,000 jury verdict on behalf of a nursing home...

    Stark & Stark Welcomes 2026 Summer Law Clerks

    Stark & Stark is proud to announce its 10th Annual Summer Law Clerk Program. Five Summer Law Clerks will join the firm from June through July...

    Retail Development Team Secures Major Recovery for Landlord Client Amid Bankruptcy Dispute

    Our Shopping Center and Retail Development Group recently secured a multi-million-dollar settlement for a commercial landlord client' s property...

    Jeffrey A. Krawitz, Esq. and Catherine Foley, Esq. Secure $950,000 Settlement in Surgical Malpractice Matter

    Jeffrey A. Krawitz, Esq. and Catherine Foley, Esq. recently secured a confidential $950,000 settlement in a surgical malpractice case. “This...

    Victoria Wilton, Esq. Selected to Serve on New Jersey State Bar Association Family Law Executive Committee

    We are proud to announce that Victoria Wilton, Esq. has been selected to serve on the New Jersey State Bar Association Family Law Executive Committee...