Estate and Business Succession Planning
Individual Estate Planning
An effective estate plan can ensure that your assets are protected and transferred to designated beneficiaries. It can also ease the transition for your survivors by helping to reduce or avoid federal and state taxes, prevent conflicts among family members, and escape the expensive administration process involved if a person dies without a Will.
Call us to discuss estate planning instruments that may be appropriate for you, including:
- Durable powers of attorney
- Advance health care directives ("Living Wills")
- Wills
- Revocable trusts
- Irrevocable trusts
- Asset protection trusts
- Special needs trusts
- Conservation trusts
- Supplemental needs trusts
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Charitable remainder trusts
Business Succession Planning
A thoughtful business succession plan will provide your heirs and business partners with a roadmap to follow upon your death, disability or retirement. Business succession plans may include shareholder agreements, or redemption, cross-purchase or hybrid “wait and see” buy-sell agreements. These agreements could be used to establish the value of your interest in your business for redemption, sale or estate tax purposes (appraisal, book value, net earnings formula), create liquidity for you or your estate upon certain triggering events (death, disability, retirement), establish where the funds to purchase some or all of your interest in the business will come from (life, disability insurance, sinking funds or operating proceeds), establish the payment terms (lump sum, down payment plus term note) and delineate who has the authority to manage and control the business after a triggering event. A good business succession plan should be drafted so it is flexible enough to ensure your desires are met in the face of changing circumstances and tax laws.
