Hanover, NH office 603.643.6072
Woodstock, VT office 802.457.9492
Business Succession Planning
For our clients who are owners of privately held businesses, an important part of estate planning focuses on maximizing economic and intrinsic value of such businesses for all generations. This includes development of tax-efficient strategies for transferring ownership, assessment of advantages and disadvantages of sale versus retention, recognition of competing interests among family members, and minimization of the impact of a transition on key non-family member employees.
The planning process typically includes:
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Review of the business’s health and its future in the marketplace;
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Assessment of the most effective means of transferring ownership and appropriate timing of the transfer;
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Consideration of deferred compensation and other devices which will bind non-family management to the business during transition or sale;
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Development of means of transferring wealth to younger generation family members who are not qualified for or, interested in, continuing in the business;
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Consideration of whether the senior generation should have continued economic benefit during and after transfer and the means of retaining that benefit;
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Determination of whether some form of continued control, or arrangement for resumption of control if necessary, should be retained by the senior generation after the transfer;
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Review of the various strategies available for minimizing income and estate taxes in accomplishing the desired objectives;
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Determination of the most appropriate source of funds to be used for the payment of taxes; and
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Consideration of an arrangement which will allow current non-family employees to acquire the business in situations where a decision has been made that retention of the business within the family is not viable.
The result should be a feeling among family members that the business and all that it represents has been transferred recognizing the personal and economic needs of the entire family in a sensible, equitable and tax efficient manner.