Exit & Succession Planning

Where the business fits in the plan, so the company is not the only plan. It compares the ways out, sale or succession, before one is forced, and plans the years after the exit along with the exit itself.

How we work

What we do

The company planned as part of the household, long before the exit.

Pre-LOI structuring

Much of a sale’s tax outcome is set before a letter of intent is signed. Entities, trusts and residency are arranged while there is still time to arrange them.

Buy-sell agreements

The agreement that decides what happens to an owner’s shares on a death, a disability or a departure, and the insurance that pays for it.

Valuation in the plan

An independent valuation brought into the household plan, so the estate plan, the gifts and the sale all work from the same number.

Part of one design

A company often organizes the founder’s days as well as the balance sheet. Exit & Succession Planning aims to plan the years after the exit along with the exit itself, so the founder knows what the money and the time are for.

We do

Put the company in the household plan
Compare a sale with succession
Coordinate the structure before a sale
Plan the proceeds and the years after

Your counsel does

Your M&A attorney drafts the deal
Your investment banker runs the sale
An independent appraiser values the company
Your accountant files the returns

When it matters most

The moments a company changes hands, and what we do in each.

All transitions

Liquidity Event

The sale of a business you own, or a large part of it. Years of concentrated, illiquid value become cash at a single closing, and the role that organized your life often ends with it.

The structure is set before the letter of intent, and the proceeds have a plan before they land.

Taking Over a Business

Stepping into a company you did not start, usually one your family did. You inherit its relationships and its comparisons along with its balance sheet.

The successor steps in with the agreements, the cover and the authority in place.

Career Change

Leaving one line of work for another, or for none. The financial break has a date and the psychological one does not.

Leaving a company you own is planned together with the years after it.

Death of a Loved One

The death of a partner or family member. Grief and administration arrive together, and only the administration has deadlines.

The buy-sell agreement, and the cover behind it, decide who owns the shares next.

Common questions

Years before a sale, where possible. §1202, which can exclude part of the gain on qualified small business stock when its conditions are met, depends on how and when the shares were issued and how long they have been held, so it is checked years ahead. Trust funding and entity and residency choices are best made well before a sale is agreed, and many of them narrow once a letter of intent is signed.

Start with a conversation.

Tell us what is changing in your family. We listen first, and tell you plainly whether we are the right office for it.

All seven services