Services

Our lawyers know business succession planning often involves competing family, financial, business, tax and nontax considerations. We offer an integrated approach to estate and business planning to design and implement a successful plan. Our services include:

• Drafting agreements to restrict transfers or allow/require redemptions and cross purchases in order to assure continuity in management and succession of ownership in a tax-sensitive manner.
• Advising business owners in the process of selecting and training family members or others to succeed to management responsibilities and implementing plans to assure effective succession of both management and control.
• Designing and implementing plans that limit values for gift and estate tax purposes.
• Assisting with the evaluation and execution of a sale of the business to an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) as an ownership exit strategy, including S-corporation ESOPs having advantageous tax characteristics for the business and the future employee-owners.
• Planning and implementing the purchase and maintenance of life insurance to, among other things, optimize gift and estate tax planning while providing liquidity for the payment of estate tax on the value of the business.
• Arranging in appropriate cases for estate taxes on the value of a business to be deferred as long as possible and paid, essentially, with future earnings.
• Designing and implementing plans to avoid or defend post-mortem challenges by tax authorities and disgruntled heirs.