Building an Estate Plan for Your Business

When we're talking about the estate plan for the business, what we're really talking about isn't sort of, you know, just sort of unwinding the thing.

It's actually to develop some control for you as the business owner once you are gone.

And that controls can be so important because it can determine whether or not the business can survive without you, whether it's going to be sold for you, without you or if it's going to be sold, who's going to be sold and how.

And oftentimes, family members are not the right people to make these decisions.

One, you haven't really explained it to them.

And two, they aren't the experts in your field.

You are.

And so without that plan in place, your value of the company goes down dramatically.

And that would be a real problem for you long term.

And if you are looking at this as a income source for your family, a real problem for your family if something were to happen to you.

And so when we're talking about a state plan, think of it less of like what happens if I die and more about sort of how do I create control over this company long after I'm gone so it is achieving the goals that I set out to achieve when I first built and began to build the company.

One of the big reasons, the first reason to have an estate plan is so there is a clear line of tasks and management in control when you're gone.

So, you know, when you're operating on a regular basis, you may not be talking to your spouse or a business partner or project manager or any of those folks about sort of how the business should run if you're no longer here.

And that's where an estate plan can really be beneficial because you can actually outline who's in charge, how they're in charge, what they're in charge of through that estate plan.

Now, it doesn't mean you shouldn't eventually have these conversations with those people in charge, but nonetheless, the estate plan kind of outlines exactly how that should work.

And it gives you the last chance ability to outline that line of delineation.

And it ensures that the right people are taking over and have access to the assets available needed in order to keep the business running, you know, particularly in the aftermath once you're gone, because there's likely going to be a bit of a shock when that happens.