"Estate Planning" For Your Business

There are really two scenarios for which you must have a plan when it comes to the future of the business. Fail to address both of these scenarios and you are leaving the future of your business to chance.

So, how lucky do you feel?

On the one hand: what will happen down the line when you are ready to give up the business (to sell it or to set up a successor)?

And, on the other hand, there is the more immediate question: what will happen to the family business if you do not wake up tomorrow morning? These are entirely different questions, and likely there are entirely different answers.

So how do you plan?

What is needed is a tiered approach as explored in a recent Forbes article titled “Don't Let Your Family Business Die With You.” This may require both short-term plans and long-term plans.

Essentially, these are the same kinds of thoughts and approaches you should begin with in all aspects of your life, property and estate. However, there is a special difficulty when it comes to a business. Proper planning has, at all times, one foot in the future and one foot in the present because you never know when the unthinkable could happen.

Do you have a plan in place?

If you do, does it take everything into consideration? If no, now is the time to start putting the pieces into place. Even if you have not committed to a long-term plan, you absolutely must have the short-term plan safely in place.

Remember: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” When making your financial, tax and estate plans, do not go it alone. Be sure to engage competent professional counsel.

For more information about estate planning in Overland Park, KS (and throughout the rest of Kansas and Missouri) and to download free tools to help you organize your estate, visit my estate planning website.

Reference: Forbes (June 11, 2014) “Don't Let Your Family Business Die With You”