Taking Over a Business
The office is yours now, and so is every comparison with the person who had it before. The plan can settle the parts that are not about the work.
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.
What changes
Taking over a family company settles three questions, best before the first hard decision.
Who decides
Control and ownership can be separated, with voting shares held by those who run the company and non-voting shares by the rest of the family. The successor’s authority is written down, not assumed.
What you sign for
Lenders often ask the owner to guarantee the company’s loans personally. Those guarantees stay until the lender releases them, so the release, or a replacement guarantee, is planned early, and key-person cover is set for the new leader.
How the shares pass
Shares can move by gift, by sale to a family trust or under the buy-sell agreement. Each carries a different tax cost, and a different message to the siblings who are not running the company.
What it strains, what it draws on
Taking over a business tends to strain confidence, money and freedom, and it draws on skill, people, clear goals and the absorption of the work itself.
Strains: the parts of a life this Transition tends to draw down. Draws on: the parts it can strengthen, and that help carry it. Both come from the Human Wealth ontology.
How the ontology maps TransitionsWho works on it
The work is shared across these Services, alongside the company’s attorney and accountant. Your counsel stays; we keep the plan in one piece.
Exit & Succession Planning
The successor steps in with the agreements, the cover and the authority in place.
Read moreRisk Mitigation & Asset Protection
Key-person cover and personal guarantees are reviewed as the successor steps in.
Read moreFamily Governance
The successor’s authority is written down before the first hard decision.
Read more
Common questions
Start with a conversation.
You do not need a balance sheet or a date. Tell us what is changing, and we will tell you plainly whether we are the right office for it.