I need a business succession plan
Your expertise built a successful business. But different kinds of expertise are required for a successful exit strategy.
The day will come when you leave your business behind. Perhaps you’re gearing up for your next challenge in the business world. Maybe you want to retire. Or your lifelong involvement in your business might end only when you die. Regardless of how you envision parting ways with your business, you’ll need a plan to ensure you maximize the value of all your hard work.
Expert succession-planning advice
A formal business succession plan provides for the transfer of ownership and control of your business —while you’re alive and ready to take on other challenges or, if you wish, as part of your estate. Whether your plan involves family members or a successful sale to management or an outside buyer, your Investment Advisor can help.
Business succession planning is complex. Your strategy will affect not only the future of your business, but your personal financial and investment strategy. Your Investment Advisor will help you explore key issues. Do you intend to transfer ownership while you’re still at the helm or not until after you die? Will you maintain an active role in the business? Are you exiting one business to start another? If you leave the business to one child how will you fairly compensate other children? Are you considering winding up the business and selling off its assets?
Tax, legal and insurance expertise
There are also tax and legal issues to consider. You’ll want to shape the future of your business so taxes are minimized and you and the future owners receive maximum benefit. This can influence how you structure arrangements to transfer ownership or sell the business. To help find the right solutions, your Investment Advisor will work with other experts as necessary — including our Estate & Insurance Advisors (Financial Security Advisors in Quebec), your legal team, your accountants and your business advisors.
For help in deciding what’s right for the future of your business, contact a BMO Nesbitt Burns Investment Advisor at a branch near you. Or, to have an Investment Advisor contact you, fill out this form.
Advice in action: Sarah
Sarah’s business has been good to her. She built a small one-person communications company into a highly successful public relations firm that now has 20 employees and a solid base of top-tier accounts. Sarah loves her job, but the hectic pace is beginning to take its toll.
Sarah would like to slow down eventually, and move to the country. Her goal is to sell the firm and use the proceeds to buy a small inn or a bed-and-breakfast she can run with her husband, with occasional help from her grown children. She’s not sure exactly when to make her exit from the business.
A BMO Nesbitt Burns Investment Advisor can review Sarah’s financial situation and help her explore the financial impact of stepping away from her business and starting a new one. An Investment Advisor can also help Sarah explore options other than an outright sale of her business. Because Sarah’s business and personal finances are complex, the Investment Advisor will be working with her legal and tax advisors. The results will help Sarah decide when it makes sense to sell, and also help her make personal financial decisions. Once Sarah’s objectives are clear, she can work with her Investment Advisor to develop a detailed business succession plan that will help her achieve her goals for the future.
