What happens to your business when you stop being involved.
Retirement, sale, family handover, or unexpected events. We plan for all of them, alongside your accountant and corporate adviser where needed.
Business succession planning is the process of preparing for what happens to your business when you stop being involved. That might be retirement, a sale, a family handover, or unexpected circumstances. We help business owners structure their estate planning around their business interests, working alongside accountants and corporate solicitors where needed.
Why business succession needs its own planning.
A business is rarely just an asset. It is income, identity, employment for staff, and often the largest single item in an estate. Treating it like any other asset in a Will misses how much depends on it.
Business succession planning covers the practical questions: who runs the business while you are recovering from illness, who steps in if you cannot, who buys you out and on what terms, what happens to your shareholding on death, how the business is valued for IHT, and what reliefs (such as Business Property Relief) might apply. None of these are answered by a default Will.
The succession routes we plan for.
Family handover
Bringing a child or family member into ownership over time, often in stages. Combines lifetime gifts of shares, voting structure changes, and Will provisions.
Sale to a third party
Preparing for a clean sale, with a Will and shareholder agreement that work alongside the sale process and protect family in the meantime.
Management buy-out
Selling to existing managers, often gradually. Structures to fund the buy-out and protect the founder's interests until completion.
Gradual handover
Reducing involvement over years rather than exiting in a single event. Voting rights, dividend rights and management roles can all be unbundled.
Wills, shareholder agreements and life insurance.
A business owner's Will sits alongside several other documents. The shareholder agreement controls what happens to shares on death, often through cross-option agreements between shareholders. Life insurance is frequently used to fund those buy-outs. The Will then deals with the residue of the estate, with the shares often handled by the agreement rather than by the Will itself.
We work alongside corporate solicitors and financial advisers where the work crosses into their specialisms. For the estate planning side, our focus is making sure the documents fit together, the family is protected, and Business Property Relief is preserved where available.
What business succession planning costs.
Quoted individually after a free consultation. Most business succession matters involve more than a single Will, so the quote covers the full piece of work, with clear stages and prices for each. We coordinate with your corporate adviser, accountant or financial adviser where their input is needed.
A clear process, from consultation to signing.
- 01
Free consultation
A no-obligation conversation about your circumstances and what you want to achieve. We listen, ask the right questions and explain your options.
- 02
Tailored advice and quote
Once we understand what you need, we explain what we recommend and why, and we give you a clear written quote. You decide whether to proceed.
- 03
Drafting and review
We draft your documents from scratch, tailored to you. We send them to you to read, walk you through anything you want explained and adjust anything that is not quite right.
- 04
Signing and storage
We guide you through the signing process, which has to be done correctly for the document to be valid. Secure storage is offered, so the original is never lost.
Common questions.
Sole ownership concentrates risk. If you cannot work, the business often cannot operate, which affects income and value. A succession plan covers temporary incapacity (handled through a Property and Financial Affairs LPA), permanent incapacity, and death. Each scenario needs different documents.
It depends on the type of business and the assets within it. Most trading businesses qualify; investment businesses generally do not. The relief can reduce the IHT on qualifying business assets by 50% or 100%. We assess this with you and your accountant during planning.
It depends on what your shareholder agreement and Articles of Association say, and what your Will says. The two need to be aligned. Shareholder agreements often include 'cross-option agreements' that give surviving shareholders the right to buy the deceased's shares, frequently funded by life insurance. We make sure your Will fits this picture.
Often, yes. Gradual gifts of shares can use up nil-rate band over time, start the seven-year clock, and bring the next generation into ownership in a structured way. The structuring depends on the shareholder agreement, the company's articles, and the family's involvement in the business.
Sometimes a single Will is right; sometimes separate Wills (one for business assets, one for personal) work better, particularly where business succession is being handled differently from personal succession. We talk this through during planning and recommend what fits.
“Most business owners have a Will. Far fewer have a Will that actually deals with the business. We close that gap.”
What clients often need alongside this.
Will writing
A properly drafted Will makes your wishes clear, protects the people you love and saves your family from unnecessary stress. Single Wills, Mirror Wills, Complex Wills.
Read moreTrusts
Trusts can protect assets for vulnerable beneficiaries, ring-fence money for grandchildren, reduce IHT exposure or keep wealth in the family across generations.
Read moreInheritance Tax planning
With careful planning, much of an estate can be passed on without an unnecessary tax bill. We work with you, and your other advisers where helpful, to plan properly.
Read more
A free consultation is the easiest place to start.
Thirty minutes with a qualified consultant, no obligation, with a clear sense of your options at the end.
Or call us on 01304 577 998