Business Succession Planning

A Business succession plan is a collection of legal and other documents that detail a business owner’s intentions as they relate to the temporary or permanent transfer of the management and ownership of their business in the event they should become incapacitated, pass away, or choose to exit/sell.

Many business owners spend most of their energy making their business successful and little, if any, energy on planning for their exit from the business. It is often said that, “if you fail to plan. then you have planned to fail”, and that holds true in the context of business succession planning. The worst business succession plan is the one that was never written and, unfortunately, this is fairly common.

A business succession plan provides a roadmap for a business to continue to provide benefits to customers, employees, and the owner’s family in their absence. The plan needs to be flexible, because the business changes over time, as does the perspective and requirements of the business owner. Consider a business owner with a 5-year old rapidly growing business and a family with three (3) young children. The requirements and components of the plan may be different at the current stage than in 10-15 years and very different in 20-25 years.

CB Capital works with our clients, their attorneys, and other professionals to design and implement business succession plans that integrate with their financial and estate plans, while remaining flexible to accommodate the changes that are inevitable over time.