Business Succession Planning Wills and Trusts

Business Succession Planning: Wills

Our Wealth Protection team is highly experienced in the area of succession planning for businesses. We can advise you on:

• drafting a Will which is bespoke not only to your individual needs but also the needs of your business
• how to incorporate succession planning in to your Will to ensure your children benefit from any business assets and not just your spouse
• identifying qualifying business assets in order to maximise Business Property Relief

By providing you with advice on succession planning for your business, we can make sure that your business and its assets are taken care of when you die. This leaves you able to continue to run the business, knowing that this aspect of your life is covered in your Will.

In conjunction with your Will, you should also make sure that any corporate documents are in place and up to date. For example, shareholders’ agreements and partnership agreements should be reviewed to make sure that succession is properly covered (shareholders often assume their shares will pass to the beneficiaries named in their Will, but this can only happen if the company documentation allows the shares to pass in this way).

 If you have business interests, your Will cannot be drafted in isolation. 

Business Succession Planning: Trusts

Understanding how a trust can help with your business succession is key to assuring your financial stability, both in planned and unplanned transitions of your business.

One of the most common uses of trusts is business succession planning. Careful succession planning can ensure that assets pass to, or become held for, the benefit of the appropriate successor and help to eliminate the risk that assets may be lost or diverted away from the family for a variety of different reasons, from the breakdown of family relationships to divorce and remarriage.

Farms for example often pass down through generations and trusts can be useful as part of any long-term succession strategy and an effective way of preserving family wealth.

The use of trusts can help to ensure that assets remain in the family and guard against future claims from creditors, spouses or even a beneficiary’s misguided actions. In certain situations it could be open to a beneficiary to separate the assets from their own estate and redirect it elsewhere, and reduce any potential inheritance tax.

This is a highly complex area of the law and you will need specialist legal advice. Please get in touch with our team of expert Wealth Protection lawyers by telephoning 03333 058375, or email wealthprotection@psg-law.co.uk

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