Business Succession Planning

Many businesses start off as a dream or a vision for the person or persons who create the business. After significant amounts of time, hard work and financial commitment the business grows into an operating business As time goes on, what once may have seemed difficult or impossible to achieve often results in a business that becomes a reality. Often there is a great amount of pride, satisfaction, and financial reward to all of those who worked to create, maintain and develop the business.

We at Smith and Condeni LLP, understand how important a business is to its owners. We meet with the owners to discuss with them and determine exactly what is most important to them regarding their business. What are the intentions of the business owners with regards to the business and to what extent do they want to grow the business? What type of exit strategy are they contemplating as they attain retirement age? Do they want to keep the business in their family or transfer it to their employees or sell it to an independent third party? Many business owners desire to transfer the business down to their children and grandchildren and keep the business in their family. Others who do not have children or grandchildren interested in the business, must look to other persons or entities to determine how they will effectuate a smooth transition of the business, while at the same time receive the financial rewards for their dedication and success.

We work with business owners to assist them in planning for retirement, and for those unpleasant events that can occur, such as disability, divorce and death of an owner. Planning is comprised of not only the those things that we want to achieve, such as retirement, vacations, etc., but also includes those unexpected things that we sometimes do not really want to think about, but which we know can happen. When those unexpected problems occur, a business where the owners have implemented a thorough business succession plan will be less disruptive than someone who has no plan.

Every business owner who cares about having their planning strategies formulated, realizes that careful planning will avoid the possibility of interruption of the operation of a business. Also, in some cases such as upon death, the need for an immediate "fire sale" of the business often occurs because a plan was never properly created and implemented and subsequently planning for the payment of estate taxes and creditors was not addressed. We plan for these issues as well as the other issues, and do so in conjunction with the client's personal estate plan to achieve the appropriate planning strategies for the client's own unique facts and circumstances.

Practice Area Attorneys

N. Lindsey Smith, Jennifer B. Cusimano, Robin Rose Stiller, Holly N. Denham, John R. Tullio, Stephanie M. Glavinos
 

Please contact Smith and Condeni for more information. We look forward to hearing from you.