Succession Planning

Overview

Whether the goal is business continuity or an exit strategy, succession planning is integral to both sound business and wealth preservation – but it is advance planning that provides the key to putting the success into succession planning. For many of the very reasons you would not wait until the last year before retiring to begin funding your retirement plan, proper succession planning needs the same advance thought and strategic planning to be positioned to leverage tax efficiencies, preserve your goals, guard against the unexpected and, ultimately, maximize value to you and your business. Depending on the plan and its transition objectives, it can also infuse a sense of cohesive stability into the company and its employees.

Laying the foundation and implementing a well-conceived plan, suited to your particular business and individual needs, is just as vital to a professional medical practice as it is to a closely-held manufacturing business; and as relevant whether the successor-apparent is one or more family members, unrelated loyal employees, or even a competitor, supplier or customer uniquely positioned for a strategic acquisition. The attorneys of Morris James’ Succession Planning Practice have guided a wide array of closely held and family-owned businesses and professional practices through successful business transitions.

The Plan – Getting it Underway

An effective roadmap to succession planning begins with well-tailored comprehensive strategies, developed years before anticipated implementation. The plan is designed to position the company and its principals to achieve their economic goals, as well as provide business continuity. Dynamic by nature, it should remain flexible enough to adjust to the ever-changing business environment and economic conditions, as well as the key personnel in place to carry out the plan. Because the succession plan often involves various aspects of multi-generational ownership, it is essential that tax, business, and estate planning considerations are taken into account at all levels of ownership to minimize the consequences of transfer and maximize the benefits to be achieved.

Our Team - Your Advantage

Morris James offers a comprehensive, multidisciplinary approach to business counseling and tax-efficient planning, both in the initial entity formation and through the various stages of the business life cycle. In the early stages, a significant aspect of business continuity involves organizing the relationship of the co-owners with the use of properly funded buy-sell and related agreements detailing their relative rights and the operation of the business.

Because our attorneys who advise businesses and their owners in succession and wealth transfer planning have experience across the board in the structure and governance of corporate and alternative entities, we employ a proactive approach to strategic tax and business planning in all phases. Integrating a broad-based knowledge of tax, business, and sophisticated estate planning and asset protection techniques, along with uncommon business and entrepreneurial insight, our attorneys are uniquely qualified to provide succession planning for your business at any stage in the cycle.

We also coordinate with the firm’s attorneys who focus on intellectual property, employment law, litigation, family law, and real estate matters in forming a true multidisciplinary team that provides a full range of legal services. Together, we provide comprehensive and wide-ranging representation, always with an eye on the future and helping our clients understand what it will take to get there; many times including the sensitive, but inherent, intergenerational conflicts that may arise on the way.

Professional Practices – Planning within the Regulations

Since we also represent physician groups and other professional practices in business matters pertaining to their profession, we recognize that practice continuation in that context may bring other techniques, professional licensing and additional regulatory compliance into play. When counseling professional practices on succession planning, whether in bringing on junior practitioners to come into ownership, formation of networks to take advantage of certain economies of scale, or acquisitions and other affiliations, we listen carefully to the stated goals and strive to guide them to achievement while navigating the complexities they face in today's regulatory environment.

Players and Tools

The following provides a brief preview of those involved in the Succession Planning process, and a few of the techniques that may be utilized to achieve their goals: