We Have Over Four Decades of Business Succession Planning Experience
Succession planning is a form of merger and acquisition planning that needs to integrate the business owner’s estate planning and also has the additional complexity of negotiating a fair transaction with whom the owner has a personal relationship with namely family members or long-term employees. Business and Legal Advisors has 40 years of experience in addressing the complicated issues surrounding a succession plan enabling them to develop, implement and customize integrated and cost-effective succession plans that will minimize the risks for both the owner and the new management.
Areas of expertise include:
- Preparing a Business for Succession Plan
- Negotiating, Implementing and Documenting the Transaction of a Business, including:
- Identifying Structure of the Transaction – Equity, Assets, Merger, ESOP or Strategic Partnership
- Structuring the Allocation (Equity, Assets, Goodwill, Consulting or Non-Compete) and Payment of the Purchase Price (Bank or Governmental Loan, Preferred Equity or Seller Financing
- Optimizing After-Tax Benefits through Income, Gift and Estate Tax Planning
- Developing Potential Alternatives for Growth for a Business for future generations
Although a succession plan is essentially a merger and acquisition transaction, there are some significant differences that BLA will collaborate with owners and new management to address including:
- The owner will generally provide a significant amount of the financing of the transaction, which will increase risk.
- The owner will evaluate if there are any current gaps that need to be addressed prior to new management operating the business.
- It is more critical for the owner to ensure that new management has completed agreements regarding management, dispute resolution provisions and what happens if a member of the new management has a planned or unplanned exit from the business.
- The parties must balance the competing interests in structuring the purchase payments that will provide a livable income to the new management and still provide sufficient compensation to the owner.
- If the owner has other children who are not involved in the business, then the owner must consider plans to equalize and separate the owner’s estate.
Contact Us Today to Get Started
For more information and to get expert help, head over to our contact information page for more details.
