Reston Business Exit & Success(ion)™ Planning Attorneys

Expert Legal Support for Seamless Business Transitions

Business Succession Planning, sometimes called Business Exit Planning, involves much more than just deciding how your assets will be distributed after you pass away. The process contemplates how your business will thrive once you are no longer able to guide it.

Your Multimillion-Dollar Exit was written by our founder as a comprehensive workbook to assist entrepreneurs. Our Reston Business Succession Planning lawyers can help you develop and implement a forward-thinking plan for success. We can evaluate your business’s current and anticipated needs before helping you create a succession plan that will protect both your interests and those of the company you have worked so hard to build. 

Key Objectives For a Business Succession Plan

A well-designed business succession plan creates a clear roadmap for partners, shareholders, heirs, and successors to follow in the event of your death, incapacitation, or retirement. Depending on your unique situation and objectives, your business succession plan might include:

• A short-term plan (business continuity plan) to keep the business operating successfully if you are incapacitated or die including the purchase of life insurance policies to ensure liquidity and estate plan
• A governance structure (management succession plan) to ensure the business continues to run smoothly
• Guidance on how to determine the value of your business (business valuation)
• A program (exit plan) that provides for 
  • the distribution and/or sale of business equity and other assets and repaying business debts.
  • Tax mitigation strategies
  • Buy/sell agreements between partners or shareholders and their families
  • Division of responsibilities and authority among successors

Are you thinking about exiting? 

To learn more: 

• Read Your Multimillion-Dollar Exit by Wayne Zell (Buy the book)
• How do I pass my Business on to the Next Generation? - WATCH or READ
• What Does a Letter of Intent (LOI) Consist Of? - WATCH or READ
• When Should I Sell a Piece of My Company to a Non-Grantor Trust? - WATCH or READ
• What is a Value Gap (Value Gap Analysis)? - WATCH or READ
• Should I Set Up a Dynasty Trust? - WATCH or READ
• What is a Management Buyout (MBO)? - WATCH or READ
• What is a Self-Canceling Installment Note (SCIN)? - WATCH or READ

When a business owner passes away, becomes incapacitated, or retires without a clear succession plan in place, a power vacuum often results. Without indisputable successors, many players within the company may lobby to take control. This can lead to major disruptions in your business’s operations and chronic disputes over the future direction of the enterprise. 

Our team at Zell Law operates at the intersection of business planning, estate planning, and tax planning, and we leverage our unique blend of knowledge to provide you with comprehensive guidance and representation you need.

Your business succession plan should identify successors and ensure they have the tools they need to take over when the time comes. The goal should be to facilitate a smooth transition with minimal conflict or disruptions.

When a business owner passes away, becomes incapacitated, or retires without a clear succession plan in place, a power vacuum often results. Without indisputable successors, many players within the company may lobby to take control. This can lead to major disruptions in your business’s operations and chronic disputes over the future direction of the enterprise. 

Our team at Zell Law operates at the intersection of business planning, estate planning, and tax planning, and we leverage our unique blend of knowledge to provide you with comprehensive guidance and representation you need.

Your business succession plan should identify successors and ensure they have the tools they need to take over when the time comes. The goal should be to facilitate a smooth transition with minimal conflict or disruptions.

Strategic Tax Planning for Business Succession

Part of the Business Succession Planning process involves understanding how the business will be taxed for income and estate planning purposes. Unexpected estate taxes resulting from business ownership can burden an already grieving family, especially if steps were not taken to protect their stake in the company. Our Reston Business Succession Planning lawyers can help you take steps to mitigate the impact of estate taxes. Potential strategies include engaging in lifetime gifts and sales of equity interests in the business to your family, successors, and/or trusts.

A deceased individual’s estate taxes must be paid within nine months of their passing, so it is important to know and prepare for the potential tax consequences a business can confer. Will the value of business assets cause the founder’s estate to incur significant estate taxes? Will there be sufficient liquidity from life insurance proceeds to negate the tax burden? Alternatively, does the founder control enough equity in the business so that taxes can be deferred under Code Section 6166 for up to fifteen years following his or her death? 

While Business Succession Planning should address scenarios where you become disabled or pass away, it should also prepare for the possibility of your retirement. You may wish to hand off control of your enterprise to a worthy successor and enjoy the fruits of what you have grown. You must carefully plan your departure and the resulting transition. You will also need to consider post-exit strategies for managing your wealth.

Our team at Zell Law is made up of experienced professionals who are invested in the long-term success of your business. We encourage you to review our many blog posts and videos to learn more about how we can help you prepare post-exit strategies. Topics include building a family legacy, managing post-retirement risks, avoiding fraud, and maintaining business continuity.

Schedule an initial consultation by contacting us online or calling (571) 410-3500.