Succession & estate planning

You’ve spent your career building and running a successful business. You’re now faced with deciding on a successor—who may or may not want your direct involvement or share your vision.

Having a succession plan or an estate plan in place is the only way to ensure an effective and smooth transition of your business and wealth. The decisions you make now will affect the future of your business, customers, employees and—most importantly—your family.

We understand that family-owned businesses face unique issues when developing and implementing a succession and estate plan. Our clients appreciate how we work with them and the knowledge and experience we bring to developing succession and estate plans. We work with your family well in advance of the anticipated transition to ensure that tax, communication and industry-specific issues are addressed. We also help you maintain the value of the business and balance family relationships throughout the process.

Our services focus on maximizing opportunities for your business. They include:

Facilitation

• Business succession planning
• Trust planning, including safeguarding assets, reducing probate fees, and holding shares in a family-owned company
• Domestic and cross-jurisdictional tax minimization strategies
• Will planning and review
• Post-mortem planning, including avoiding double taxation
• Asset disposition planning
• Charitable gift planning