Are You Prepared For Succession?
Generally, Owners should plan to increase value, maximize cash, reduce tax, reduce risk, and better ensure business & family continuity at a timely exit.
Ownership Succession
All owners will exit their businesses. Owners need to prepare for
and also protect against crisis/untimely exit.
Towards ownership succession, Rice & Associates acts as
a confidant to owners – getting owners to address “think
about” questions and bring clarity to their objectives, and
also finds out needs and wants of various parties.
After determining what needs to get done, Rice &
Associates coordinates or works with legal and
other specialists towards valuation objectives & valuation
itself; business continuity, including control, buy/sell
agreement, and life insurance; stock classes and transfers;
net present value of deferred compensation or similar
concepts; decision rights; family harmony, legacy, vision,
values, goals, and family policies; and relating ownership
succession matters. Rice & Associates also directly assists in
a business sale.
Timely/Orderly exit options include:
- Retain ownership – with successor management
- Gifting – outright; or with deferred compensation, family limited partnerships, annuities, consulting, or similar concepts, which:
- Transfer non-controlling ownership to children or others
- Allow owners (often parents) to retain control for some time
- Provide owners a post-retirement income stream
- Legitimately provide tax advantages – enable successor to pay for business in pre-tax dollars (as does leveraged debt)
- Sell – to outside, family, or employees (co-owners, management, or ESOP)
- Liquidate
“Succession Is The Challenge Most Likely
To Make Or Break A Family Company”
Gordon Pitts
author of In the Blood
Ask The Right Questions
How long am I going to work?
When am I leaving the business?
How much income stream do I need?
How much is my business worth?
How can I increase value?
How can I maximize cash and reduce risk at exit?
What do I want to do with my life?
Management Succession
Often overlooked, but critical, management succession can involve:
- Successor’s commitment to run the business
- Strategic plan – particularly vision & key results
- Organization structure
- Management team
- Board of directors and governance
- Timelines
- Reducing key person dependency
- Compensation matters
- Develop people – need to identify possible successors throughout, determine development gaps, and groom successors
- Bridge successor
- Identify succession obstacles
Rice & Associates role towards management succession includes finding out needs/wants of various parties, and assist in areas that need to get done.
"What can a leader do to get other people to follow? It's easy. Become the person whom others want to be like."
Robert Wolgemuth
author, Daddy@Work
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