Member of Russell Bedford International, a global network of independent professional service firms.
Member of Russell Bedford International, a global network of independent professional service firms.
If you have children (or grandchildren) you have an opportunity to give them a jump-start on their journey to becoming financially responsible adults. While teaching your child about money and finances is easier when you start early, it’s never too late to impart your wisdom. Below are some age-relevant suggestions to help develop a financially savvy young adult:
Knowing about money – how to earn it, use it, invest it and share it – is a valuable life skill. Simply talking with your children about its importance is often not enough. Find simple, age-specific ways to build their financial IQ because a financially savvy child will hopefully lead to a financially wise adult. If you have any questions about raising a financially savvy child, please contact your trusted advisor at Cray Kaiser.
Your business partner(s) should balance your strengths and support you through the good times and the bad. They should also be willing to communicate with you freely and often. And while you and your partner may agree about everything now, disagreements and unexpected events are inevitable. That’s why a written partnership agreement is so valuable. Do you and your partner(s) have one?
The need for a partnership agreement can be summed up in two words: things change. It’s important to sit down now and hammer out potential scenarios and solutions in a written agreement. You never know what the future may hold for you, your partner(s) or your business. Your agreement will make sure that you have a plan ready no matter what may come your way.
A partnership agreement should anticipate major business changes and spell out how to deal with them. The agreement should also indicate what initial capital contributions (or services) will be made when additional capital contributions will be required, and how profits and losses will be shared.
Questions to discuss include:
A partnership agreement can’t address every possible contingency, so consider an arbitration clause to handle disputes that you and your partner aren’t able to resolve on your own. Without such a clause, your only alternative could be costly litigation.
With a carefully designed partnership agreement, your business will run more smoothly and provide you and your partner(s) with peace of mind. Your attorney can assist you with the legal aspects of the agreement and you can contact Cray Kaiser with questions regarding your finance and tax-related aspects.
Does your company know how it would handle a death, disability or departure of one of its owners? Whether you are part of a family business or not, buy-sell agreements are important to any company. But what makes it so important? A buy-sell agreement, also known as a business continuity contract, spells out how the assets and business interests would be distributed if an owner leaves the business, becomes disabled or passes away.
Without a plan in place, an otherwise thriving company can be thrust into turmoil. For example, the remaining owners may become entangled in legal disputes over business assets and management. If the company’s ownership seems doubtful or its future uncertain, its performance will suffer. And that performance doesn’t stop at the leadership team. Employees may feel less confident in and connected to the work they’re doing without the stability of a clear path forward and a unified leadership team.
The possible departure of an owner isn’t the only reason to prepare a buy-sell agreement. Sometimes an owner voluntarily decides to leave a company to pursue another business opportunity or a well-earned retirement. A carefully crafted buy-sell agreement will facilitate the transfer of ownership by assessing a firm’s value and ensuring that all parties are treated fairly.
A buy-sell agreement is instrumental to create at the outset of the company when all the other organizational documents are being crafted. It’s important not to think of a buy-sell agreement as something that you need down the road. Rather, it’s better to proactive in its creation since many of the scenarios a buy-sell agreement addresses are unpredictable. For businesses that have been in existence for a while and still don’t have one, it’s never too late to establish a buy-sell agreement.
Even if you already have a buy-sell agreement in place, you should review and revise it periodically to make sure it reflects your company’s current situation. Contact Cray Kaiser today if you’d like to learn more about preparing or reviewing your buy-sell agreement.
It’s a difficult thing to think about, but one day you could be taking care of an elderly parent who’s in declining physical or mental health. Whether or not you work with your parents in a family business, it’s important to recognize the financial stress and list of “to dos” that come with the emotions of this phase of life and to know how to talk about finances. By taking steps to ensure finances are in order now, you’ll be more prepared to handle those matters down the road. In turn, you’ll have the ability to focus on the health and quality of life of your parents as they age.
While your parents may be reluctant at first, it’s important to talk to them about their financial affairs. Knowing information such as where important documents are kept and the name of their accountant will better equip you to help them settle their affairs.
To open the conversation with your parents, here’s how to talk about finances with your aging parents:
Find out where your parents keep the following records:
Make a list of these items and review them with your parents:
Find out if your parents have these planning assets. If they don’t, talk to them about how you can support them in putting these plans in place:
Learn about your parents’ current financial situation, including:
At Cray Kaiser, we recommend keeping all of this vital information in a Crash Card. You can learn more about Crash Cards and download a template here.
Don’t worry about gathering every bit of information in one sitting. Rather, think of this list as a starting point for a series of conversations. Wherever possible, involve your parents in putting their own affairs in order. If you’d like additional guidance on how to talk about finances with your family, contact us today.
Struggling to find and retain tradespeople? Deciding when the timing is right to replace that 30-year-old machine? Noticing that your technology systems are slowing you down rather than making you more efficient? You’re not alone. Our 2017 manufacturing outlook addresses the biggest issues facing manufacturers this year and offers perspective from a firm that’s been working with numerous manufacturing companies for 45 years.
Diane and Tom, owners of a small manufacturing business, are proud of their daughters and the careers they’ve chosen. Megan, their oldest, has taken over the operations of their business. Their younger daughter, Shannon, is a pediatrician. Diane and Tom built their business and raised their children with similar integrity, resulting in a well-respected business and two strong and successful daughters. Fairness has always been very important to Diane and Tom. As they approach succession planning, they want to be sure their daughters are treated equally. Therefore, they intend to split their business equally between the two daughters. But is equal truly the fairest option when it comes to succession planning for a family business?
Like many family business owners addressing their succession plan, Diane and Tom zero in on the family business and neglect to include their entire estate in their planning efforts. Proper succession planning considers assets beyond the family business. Founders should evaluate their whole estate and identify assets outside of the business that can also be bequeathed in an effort to achieve fairness.
When determining the future ownership of the business, family dynamics will certainly play a role. Sometimes leaving a portion of the business to a child not involved in the day-to-day can result in a significant amount of turmoil. Those in the business may feel slighted, as though their contributions to the company went unnoticed. Those not in the business may not have interest in becoming a co-owner. The solution most often recommended is to leave the business to children who work in the company and allocate other assets to children not in the business.
However, some families may choose to leave equal shares of the business no matter the participation. When this occurs, maintaining leadership through an outside, experienced professional can mitigate issues around family dynamics.
Remember, successful succession planning goes beyond determining ownership. It also involves developing new leaders. While the founders’ children may be the owners of the company, it is important to consider if they have the talents, skills and experience levels needed to lead the company in that moment or in the future. Hiring external C-suite leadership teams to help navigate the family asset can benefit all those involved.
Regardless of how succession is determined, communication is the most vital component prior to the transfer of ownership. Open and honest communication eases the business transition and also helps to maintain strong family dynamics during an emotional time. The goal is that no one feels left out and no one feels misunderstood. Communication brings the family together and puts everyone at the same table with the same information. Good communication ensures:
For Diane and Tom, addressing succession planning now follows the path of integrity that they’ve traveled as they’ve raised their daughters and built their business. By looking at the whole picture and addressing leadership continuity, the succession plan becomes less about assets and more about harmony.
Communicating and sharing the plan maintains that harmony after they’re gone. For more information about succession planning for a family business that has children both in and not in the business, contact us today.
A family meeting is a gathering of all family members related to the owners of a family-owned or privately held business, regardless of role in the business or the family. Our philosophy is that even entrepreneurs and unrelated business owners have a family business. The business itself is a ‘family asset’. Click here to read if you’d like to learn more about how to have family meetings.
Intrapreneurship embodies risk taking and innovation within an established business. When evaluating the sustainability of any organization, one might revisit the business model and consider new business lines that could resist the numerous tugs experienced in the lifecycle of any business.
You get an oil change every three months to protect your car. You get a check-up every year to protect your health. You file your taxes every year to prevent issues with the IRS. But what are you doing to protect your family and your business when you will not be around to protect them yourself?
In the event of an unexpected death or tragedy, what can you do to make this time easier for those you leave behind? Create a crash card. The crash card contains and communicates all the information your family and business successors need in order to move forward with your estate and business. It lists the contact information for your trusted advisors, locations of important papers and login information for your accounts.
None of us want to think about preparing for the end of our own lives. It is sad, complicated and scary. However, if we avoid taking the time to properly prepare for this eventuality, we leave our family members and business successors in a difficult position at a stage when they are feeling emotional. Recently we helped a family manage the estate of a loved one who passed away. They almost missed out on a significant amount of insurance proceeds because none of the family members were aware of the policy and no documents were found with the other financial paperwork. Fortunately, when going through the client’s checkbook, it was discovered that the client had been making quarterly payments to a life insurance company. The family received the benefits, but they easily could have missed this asset.
In a family business situation, we recommend annual family meetings, a sort of a state of the union address that includes all family members, even those not involved with the business. During this meeting, the location of the crash card should be communicated to the family along with a high level understanding of the succession plan.
All family members should have a personal crash card that includes all the information listed above as well as any additional personal accounts, including mortgage papers, credit cards and auto titles.
More than one person should know the location of your crash card. Many clients choose to store a copy in a safety deposit box or an in-house safe and have a trusted advisor hold onto the originals. Typically an attorney would hold this document along with the corporate record book, will, trust and other estate documents.
The crash card is not a one-and-done deal. It is a living, breathing document. It should be reviewed and revised once a year or at least every two years. We live in an accelerated, changing world in which your vendors, their contact information and your account access information changes frequently. An outdated crash card does not provide your survivors with the assistance and comfort that is intended.
Thinking about an event that leaves your family and business successors to manage your estate is likely not at the top of your list of things to do for the day. We have a story that may help you prioritize.
We were sad to learn that a well-loved client passed away unexpectedly. He had a number of companies where many people were involved, which could have easily increased the difficulty of this situation for his survivors. However, because he had a succession plan with all the relevant succession documents: wills, trusts, shareholder agreements and operating agreements in place, his survivors could focus on dealing with losing him and on managing damage control for the business. While the ripple effect of losing this entrepreneurial and generous man will be felt forever, the enterprise he left is well-managed and well-executed. And it is all because he communicated with his survivors about the location of the information they would need to move forward in the event of his absence.
Let us help you stay on a path that ensures your survivors are also in as positive of a position as possible someday. Contact us today to start the process of developing your crash cards and succession planning documents.
Your son John has the best sales record on the team. Your daughter Mary’s advertising campaign was a huge success. But despite their talents and success, neither has a head for numbers. And neither has much savvy when it comes to culture and management. Kevin, your right-hand man for the last 15 years, runs operations smoothly, managing both finances and people with ease. He’s the obvious leader. But he’s not family. And he’s not an owner. As you begin to plan for your retirement, how do you do what’s best for your family without risking losing Kevin? Focusing on the company as an entity rather than the people as individuals allows you to set emotion aside and gain the perspective you need.
Leaders will not always agree on the best decisions. Rather than arguing and creating unnecessary drama, the team can simply refer to the plan, finding the structure and direction to guide them to the correct decisions. Succession planning for family businesses allows you to make necessary changes within the family structure for the business without being interpreted as an individual slap or reprimand.
This is your business. And your family. You’ve poured your blood, sweat and tears into this company. And now you want to see your children benefit from all that hard work. You recognize that the best way for your children to succeed is by ensuring that Kevin stays with the company after you leave. Without Kevin’s leadership, John and Mary will struggle to run the company on their own. Your succession plan must find ways to keep Kevin involved, motivated and loyal.
A succession plan, especially one that endeavors to involve both family and key non-family employees, must be customized to your unique business needs and objectives. Every business, every family and every ownership structure is different. Various options are available, but what’s best for your company may be completely different from what’s best for your peers.
A few options to consider include:
Simply including key nonfamily employees in your succession plan is not enough. They are more likely to be loyal and motivated to work hard if their value to the company and their future with the company are clearly defined and communicated.
Thinking back to your situation with John, Mary and Kevin, how will you keep Kevin loyal to your company as you approach retirement? Will you offer him phantom stock? Assure him with a family employment policy that reduces the risk that he’ll be overlooked just because he’s not a member of the family? Should he have any ownership interest? Or does he need more control to drive the company toward success? Your best bet is to involve your trusted advisors in your succession planning process. With a full understanding of your company’s operations, risks and family dynamics, you and your planning team can create a succession plan that keeps Kevin loyal to the company and helps John and Mary achieve the success you’ve always wanted for them, and for your company.
Succession planning for family businesses is vital. If you’re looking for help with your succession plan, please contact Cray Kaiser today.
