You have invested your time and energy, as well as much of your life, into building a booming business. Now, you’re getting close to retirement and would like to make sure that your company continues to thrive.
This is certainly possible, and there are protections that you can put into place to help keep your business in the family or in the hands of those you trust to carry on the legacy. You’ve worked hard to achieve success, so it’s important to put protections in place and to create a plan for passing on your business to those next in line.
How can you address your business in your estate plan?
To address your business in your estate plan, you need to ask yourself a few questions. For example, if you have investment properties, who is going to continue to collect rent or perform maintenance? If you can no longer run the business, who will you have take over? Those people should be appointed in a succession plan and included in your estate plan as well.
There are multiple documents that you should put into place to help with succession planning, but you’ll need to have documents in place to protect you, too. For example, you need to have a will and should consider setting up your power of attorney now. Why? If you’re sick and impaired, do you trust that those around you would take care of you and do what’s right? Do you want to select a specific person to help you? Most people prefer to select someone to care for them who they know they can trust with their finances and investments.
In your will, you can make it clear that you’d like to pass your company on to someone specific if it hasn’t already been passed on at the time of your death. Even if you have a succession plan, stating who you’d like to have take over again in your will is not a bad idea.
These are a few things to think about when you start estate planning with a business. There are many aspects of estate planning and succession planning that you may want to learn more about.