Tampa Business Succession Planning Attorney
If you’ve spent your life’s work building up a business, it can be hard to think about how the business could ever continue on without you. But the fact is that if you want the business to thrive even after you’re gone, in the way you would like it to, you really need to meet with a Tampa Business Succession Attorney who specializes in this niche.
Since business succession planning can involve complex legal issues and emotional issues, an attorney who has expertise in business succession planning can really help you make sure that your business in Tampa is legally sound for the future and can provide third-party counseling about decisions that can be draining both emotionally and intellectually.
There are two important issues that a Tampa business attorney can help you with: setting up ownership and managing the impact of estate taxes.
- Ownership: Who will manage the company when you’re gone? If you are unattached to the company or want a clean split, you may consider transferring management and selling the company to an outside source. Or, you may want to search for an outside individual who seems to have good managerial and business skills. If you have children who want to take over the business, or long-term employees, you may want to leave leadership and ownership to them.
Stock options are also a good way to invest in and retain long-term employees who can assist the transition when your business experiences a change of leadership. Choosing a future management team for your business and trying to divide the worth of your business can feel overwhelming. A Tampa business and succession attorney can help you weigh your many options and devise an ownership transfer to suit your needs and desires.
- Taxes: This is a huge factor, that if not carefully planned for, taxes that can arise when a business transfers hands can serve a hard and sometimes lethal blow to a business’s finances. Even if you are planning on leaving your business directly to your spouse, you still need to talk to an attorney in Tampa with business succession planning experience. Estate taxes can still affect you if your business is worth more than a certain amount and you don’t take additional steps to lessen your tax burden.
If you are leaving your business to a child or long-term employee and you start early enough, you can gradually transfer your assets to them to avoid some of the tax strain. If you are a partner in a business, the partners may want to consider taking out life insurance policies on one another. That way the partners will be able to buy out your investment in the company upon your death and compensate your family. There are so many different taxes that can affect a business transfer and so many different succession scenarios that you really need to seek the advice of a Tampa business succession planning attorney for sound advice for your business.
When you spend your life investing in and growing a business, it can be hard to think about having to let go of your life’s work to someone else.
Contact Suncoast Elder Law to make sure that you have the best plan set in advance for your future business goals.