Many people focus on a personal Will when thinking about the legalities of death and the redistribution of assets. However, if you are a business owner, or hold high share value in businesses, you need to consider a Business Will alongside management of your personal assets.
A Business Will is specialised and pertinent with regard to your business, your family, and certainly your legacy. After all, you spend a long time building up your business and ensuring its success – and the last thing you would want, should anything happen to you, is that all that hard work goes to waste, and your family suffers the loss.
Key functions of a Business Will:
- Protects the business to ensure continuity in the event of death, disability and retirement of key personnel
- Separates personal liability from business liabilities
- Provides a workable exit strategy
- Prevents the business from ending up in the wrong hands.
Factors you need to consider:
- Who would be genuinely keen to take on the business in the event of your death?
- Who is the most skilled and experienced to fill your position competently?
- What would be the tax implications?
Benefits include abilities to:
- set up instructions as to how the company should be run when you are not around
- ensure the ethos and values of the business continue after you pass away
- construct plans well-ahead of time – effectively continuing the fundamental structures of the business.
How a Business Will helps to create peace of mind
It might be depressing to imagine what might happen to your business if you were to retire for any reason or pass away – but still important to think ahead if you want your business to continue to thrive once you, as the key driver, are no longer there.
- A Business Will is one way to ensure the smooth transition of business ownership after the event of a death or disability, allowing business operations to continue – thus ensuring continued security for your family.
- A Business Will can specify management, responsibilities and funding for the future, avoiding uncertainty for family and business colleagues who might be unsure of what to do after you leave as they struggle to cope with the consequences.
- A Business Will is created to ensure your business will be maintained and developed in a way that will continue your vision. The Will outlines how you want your assets to be taken care of – which is why it’s important to draft such a document as soon as your business is soundly established.
- A Business Will protects the business from interruptions and a situation where the business and its assets may be frozen while the estate is wound up. A properly drawn up Will ensures continuation of the business without legal obstacles and delays.
- A Business Will has emotional benefit: a well-thought out Will ensures that an already upsetting time doesn’t become even more stressful for your family or surviving business partners, and staff.
Professional advice in drawing up a Business Will is vital.
After all, you are dealing with the two most important aspects of your life – your work and your family. Take up the opportunity to discuss all your options with a professional advisor and take the necessary steps to ensure your succession plan reflects what you want.
Working with a financial planner makes utmost sense as you prepare a Business Will. It can help you to understand how it fits into all the other plans you have, including any other assets, and how you may want them distributed – and additionally, what is the most tax efficient way to do this.
Find the top-class professionals who can meet your expectations
Complete Financial & Business Solutions (CFBS) comprises a group of top-class professional financial advisors and business analysts committed to sound financial and business solutions based on a highly personalised approach. Passionate about ensuring peace of mind through the in-depth analysis of individual financial and business circumstances of our clients, we are able to create unique solutions, and regularly review these solutions to consistently meet service expectations and lifestyle goals.
