- ESTATE PLAYBOOK -
Lifestyle Continuity For You And Your Family
Family Lifestyle Continuity In Place
Incredible Result: “I love my Family. Let’s be clear. I am protecting them.”
Avoidable Train Wrecks: Inadequate Estate Plan controls damage your Company and deplete family wealth.
Main Play: The Business Owner Estate Plan
What This Is: You have directed who receives your estate and who is in charge when you can’t be. And you have provided your family with enough cash flow (from your business, investments and insurance), with careful timing, distribution and spendthrift controls, so your family’s lifestyle can continue upon your disability or death.
Bloodline Wealth Opportunities In Place
Incredible Result: “I don’t want to just protect my Family. I have created long term business and personal opportunities for them.”
Avoidable Train Wrecks: Bloodline wealth opportunities wasted.
Main Play: The Family Bloodline Opportunities Trust
What This Is: Your Company, investments, life insurance and vacation home will be owned, used, invested, preserved and grown to promote family harmony, entrepreneurship, education, and responsibility and protected against potential lawsuit, creditor, spendthrift, bankruptcy, divorce or substance dependency issues.
Family Ownership Allocation In Place
Incredible Result: “We’ll be fair to all children, which includes the freedom to own, control and operate the Company for those with the passion to do so.”
Avoidable Train Wrecks: Wrong family members become Company owners or receive control.
Main Play: The Family Ownership Matrix
What This Is: You carefully cover how you will transfer your Company ownership to your family during your life and after your death. This includes who will receive controlling shares, and whether a “sweat equity” share of your Company will be allocated to an adult child or children active in the business and whether and how an equalizing share of (and vote in) Company ownership, personal investments or life insurance will be allocated for children not active in the business.
Family Business Retention In Place
Incredible Result: “With Family ownership comes responsibility to act in the best interests of all. So, we have pre-set the rules for who gets to remain Owners.”
Avoidable Train Wrecks: Wrong family members remain Company owners or remain in control.
Main Play: The Family Buy-Sell Agreement
What This Is: To be given or to inherit Company shares, your family must sign the Family Buy-Sell Agreement. This has proper insurance funding and has been designed to thoughtfully control buy back or retention of next generation ownership in case of a family member’s death, disability, dispute, divorce, desire to sell or bankruptcy.
Family Business Continuity In Place
Incredible Result: “If my Family wants to be involved with our Company, I won’t allow our great Company to come between them.”
Avoidable Train Wrecks: Business and estate disputes within your family.
Main Play: The Family Peacekeeper Policy
What This Is: You require the agreement by present and future family members to certain business continuity terms. You have a family employment policy and a market-driven compensation and dividend process. You have appointed a Family Council to work with your Board and CEO. You have created a financial reserve from your estate (or from your life insurance) to help support your Company’s bank credit or bonding needs.
Family Estate Tax Reduction In Place
Incredible Result: “We haven’t built all of this for Uncle Sam to take away or to deplete.”
Avoidable Train Wrecks: Estate tax hit.
Main Play: The Estate Tax Reduction Strategy
What This Is: You have achieved control over potential government impact by reducing your projected estate taxes (or by pre-funding with life insurance) and assuring your Company does not need to be sold, liquidated or compromised in order to help your family pay your estate taxes.
Quick Facts
Estate Planning is actually lifestyle continuity planning through controls you put into place now while you are alive and well. This should provide you with peace-of-mind today that the controls you have adopted will enable your family to navigate the twists and turns they will face. Fourth Quarter Business Owners need to address several, often overlooked, Estate Planning techniques, funding and control issues that are unique to business owners.