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 Family Business: Succession,
Estate and Retirement Planning |
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A well-designed business succession and estate plan encompasses the transfer of ownership rights and management responsibilities as well as wealth preservation and effective retirement planning. |
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Objectives
• Integrate the succession plan with estate, retirement and financial planning
• Minimize estate liquidity demands to ensure the continued viability of the business
• Determine ownership and management successorship
• Provide a method for transfer of control during the owner’s lifetime or at his/her passing
• Balance personal, family and business priorities
• Ensure unbiased and equitable succession decisions
• Identify and incentivize key non-family employees critical to the continuing success of the business
• Achieve consensus among stakeholders and other family members
• Provide flexibility for unforeseen contingencies or future revisions to the plan
Income, Gift and Estate Planning
• Use of intra-family installment notes, private annuities and split-interest trusts
• Deferral of estate taxes
• Interim ownership
• Will provisions
• Valuation discounts
• Minimizing the tax impact of intra-family sale of assets and transfer costs
• Leveraging of lifetime gifts and valuation discounts on closely-held business interests
Organizational Considerations
• Company’s competitive market position
• Cash flow and capital requirements
• Management infrastructure
Family Dynamics
• Suitability and potential management roles/business niches of junior family members
• Compensation
• Conflict resolution
Financial and Retirement Needs
• Salary continuation and deferred compensation
• Cash flow from the sale of business interests
• Distributions from IRAs and qualified retirement plans
Liquidity
• Estate taxes and administrative expenses
• Funding for buy/sell agreements among multiple owners
• Structure for ownership transition
• Planning with life insurance
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Thoughtful, insightful business succession planning is an adjunct of careful gift, estate and retirement planning. These endeavors are inextricably linked, as the transfer of business and investment assets directly impact the preservation of the wealth and financial security accumulated by business owners and their families.
Determining the most advantageous course of action for business succession, estate and retirement planning is one of the most formidable challenges an older business owner faces. Effective planning involves not only balancing personal, family and business priorities, but also providing flexibility for unforeseen contingencies and changes in the law.
Margolin, Winer & Evens LLP is an expert at assisting business owners through the process of succession and estate planning. Our strength is in helping assure that your business will continue to flourish and your estate and financial planning goals are met.
MWE is one of the largest accounting and business advisory firms in the Northeast. Our Family Business Practice Group is widely recognized in this focused area of expertise.
At MWE, family business planning is a highly specialized discipline. We understand the complexity of devising a succession strategy that will sustain a business enterprise into the future, while protecting the personal wealth and financial well-being provided by the owner’s life’s work.
We are experts at navigating the sensitive interpersonal dynamics that often define a company’s character, to arrive at an ownership and management infrastructure that capitalizes on the strengths of individual family members and other key executives active in the business. Simultaneously, the planning process must also provide equitably for other family members.
As tax and business planning specialists, we are able to ensure that the transfer of assets is properly structured for maximum financial benefit to all parties, utilizing sophisticated planning strategies designed to meet the particulars of an individual’s circumstances. The planning process involves the implementation of an interim estate plan that ultimately evolves into a final plan which provides flexibility, and accommodates unforeseen contingencies or revisions.
Since 1946, MWE has mastered the finer details of successful family business transitioning and estate planning. Our approach encompasses a disciplined and focused process that results in a comprehensive plan that successfully synthesizes the owner’s business, personal and family priorities, and achieves consensus among the stakeholders and other family members.
The experts who comprise our Family Business Practice Group represent the highest standards of achievement in the field. Many are active in leading professional associations and serve on specialized committees in order to remain current with new industry trends and developments. Group members also frequently lecture to trade and professional organizations and contribute articles to leading journals and business publications.
Whatever the circumstances, MWE has the expertise to help devise and implement the right solution. As business succession, estate and retirement planning consultants, we will apply our experience and body of knowledge to arrive at solutions that successfully integrate the dynamics of business and family, for the full benefit of all concerned parties. We call this turning vision into value. You’ll call it one of the best family business decisions you’ve made.
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