As a business owner, you likely have several important decisions to make daily, from hiring or firing to working with vendors and finding new commercial locations. Because of your daily responsibilities, you may put off planning your estate as you have a busy schedule. However, failure to create an estate plan can be detrimental to your business and your Beneficiaries. If you’re not sure why you should begin this process, the following blog and a Medina, Ohio estate planning lawyer can assist you through these complicated issues to help you achieve peace of mind for the future.
Why Is It Important for a Business Owner to Have an Estate Plan?
As you’ve likely poured your heart and soul into ensuring your business operates smoothly and maintains a positive reputation in your industry and community, ensuring you have a plan in place upon your passing is critical. Unfortunately, many assume that creating an estate plan isn’t something they need to do until they are older, which is far from the truth. If you have a business, you should invest in an estate plan.
When you pass away without an estate plan while owning and operating a company, it can create confusion and disputes among your heirs and employees. As such, ensuring you have a plan in place can help make things much clearer and reduce disputes upon your passing.
Additionally, you may find that failure to dictate what you would like to happen to your business can result in it shutting down or being sold when that was not your wish. As such, it is critical to connect with an attorney to create an estate plan to determine how you would like these matters handled.
What Should Be Included?
Your estate plan should include the traditional documents, like your Will, any Trust Funds, Financial Powers of Attorney, and your Advanced Healthcare Directive. However, including a Financial Power of Attorney is incredibly important for business owners, as it allows you to appoint someone to make financial decisions on your behalf in the event you become incapacitated or unable to do so yourself.
In addition, you should create a Succession Plan. This allows you to dictate what you would like to happen to your business. Generally, the first thing you’ll need to consider is who will take over your role at the helm of your company. This could be a business partner or family member. However, you may also want to include a Buy-Sell agreement which allows your family to sell your portion of your business to your other owners or a third party if they do not want to run the company in your place.
At Krause Law, we understand how difficult these matters can be. That’s why our team is committed to guiding you through this process so you can rest assured that in the event you become incapacitated or pass away, your Beneficiaries and business are protected. Don’t wait until it’s too late. Contact us today to learn how we can assist you during these matters.
