(856) 439-6223Business owners who do not plan for their ultimate transitions away from their companies can cause significant confusion over management and control, which can lead to costly disputes and litigation. If you want to keep these problems from occurring at your company, a Bucks County business succession planning lawyer from Nesevich Law, LLC could help you. Our estate planning attorneys provide the advice and counsel that owners need for the smooth and conflict-free continuity of the business entities that they built.
Why Does Litigation Over Business Succession Happen?
Owners of closely held or family Bucks County companies often rely on buy-sell contracts, partnership agreements, and similar planning documents that their attorneys have drafted to manage succession. Those agreements can provide a foundation to minimize disputes, but they do not always prevent them. That is because:
- The slightest ambiguity in documents regarding ownership or management can form the basis of a claim challenging succession plans
- An owner’s oral representations to other executives or family members may contradict written business transition plans, leading to further ambiguity and litigation challenges
- Competing valuations of the business are common grounds for succession disputes
- Family members who dislike each other often argue over unequal distributions of ownership or control
- Succession challengers can call for forensic accounting audits to uncover alleged breaches of an owner’s fiduciary responsibilities, leading to attempts to invalidate a business succession plan
You may not be able to forestall these or other disagreements that give rise to litigation, but our lawyers could strive to minimize the disruptions to business operations and prepare for a smoother transition.
How Could Our Attorneys Help You With Business Succession Planning?
Our Bucks County legal team could audit your existing buy-sell agreements and related contracts to identify potential gaps in your company’s succession preparations that can give rise to arguments. While addressing those gaps, our attorneys could prepare a transition contract that verifies how to transfer ownership and control of your closely held business, with clear descriptions of which documents and agreements take precedence over others. We could restate operating or partnership agreements by adding provisions that reduce ambiguities and establish rational mechanisms to address disputes.
Our lawyers could also draw up powers of attorney that give named agents specific, time-limited authority to make decisions on your behalf if you are incapacitated or otherwise disabled. Our team could write estate plans that coordinate the distribution of personal assets and business interests and create insurance planning documents that can help beneficiaries finance the purchase of outstanding shares of the business’s ownership.
How Can You Plan for Business Succession?
Our business succession lawyers could advise you on how to prepare for management and ownership transitions involving your Bucks County company. You could assist in that process by:
- Compiling a complete list of individuals (including family members and key employees) who may have a stake in continuing the operations of the business
- Writing a list of goals you want the business succession to accomplish
- Arranging for meetings with accountants and bankers to establish valuation criteria for your business
- Establishing good communication with individuals who will succeed you as owners or managers
You can take these and other measures even if you perceive that you are years away from departing from your business. You can then revise your business succession plan periodically as conditions change.
Contact Our Bucks County Attorneys To Discuss Your Business’s Succession Plan
If you have questions about how to ease management and ownership transitions at the company you built, an experienced Bucks County business succession planning lawyer from Nesevich Law, LLC could answer them. Call our firm today to schedule a conference.