What is a Succession Plan?

Most businesses don’t survive long after a change in leadership has taken place. Establishing a succession plan for your business is crucial in order to ensure that it continues to grow after you leave.

Stark & Stark’s Succession Planning attorneys work with entrepreneurs to create a plan to ensure a profitable future for the business owners, employees and clients. Creating a succession plan emphasizes your commitment to your business’ long-term growth and success.

There are many aspects you as a small business owner need to consider when creating a succession plan. Each plan begins with the reorganization of equity, the updating of wills and trusts and the reviewing of the company’s insurance policies. Next, buy sell agreements are drafted, compensation procedures are reviewed and an advisory board is established which will strategize, design and implement employee incentive plans. This portion of the process involves additional independent professionals such as financial planners, accountants and bankers.

Once your succession plan has been established, it is essential that the completed plan be reviewed and updated on a regular basis, as circumstances will continually change. Business succession plans outline in detail how changes in ownership and management are to be executed.

Corporate Succession Planning

Stark & Stark’s attorneys are well versed 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. Our firm has the advantage of being able to utilize a multi-disciplinary approach and applies resources from various practice areas within the firm to each client’s case.

Preparing your business for change will ensure that your wealth is preserved and protected for future generations. Multi-generational business planning requires cutting-edge legal and tax planning techniques. Stark & Stark’s Succession Planning attorneys have the experience needed in order to counsel small business owners through the complex business, financial and personal decisions that arise during the succession planning process.