If you own a business, you must plan for what happens to this business when you die. An estate plan does not only include your personal assets but also your business and its assets. An estate plan attorney can do a case evaluation and help you create plans for your business or your stake in it.  

Plans You Can Make for Your Business

When you create an estate plan that includes your business, you can decide what to do with it and its assets after you die. Your options include the following:

• Passing the business down to your child: To protect your business after you die, you can leave it to a grown child if you have any. 
  
• Selling your stake: If you are just a co-owner of the business, you can have your business partners buy your stake in it following your death. 
  
• Liquidation: If none of your family members wants to run the business after you die, you can create a provision in your plan to sell off the business and related assets. 

Without a plan in place, the state will make decisions regarding what happens to your business and where your assets go on your behalf. The assets of your company can end up distributed between several relatives. Often, this is not an ideal situation if a business is involved as it can lead to legal battles and personal disputes. Thus, it’s important to have a plan in place from the get-go.

Steps You Can Take Before You Create an Estate Plan

Before making an estate plan, speak with your loved ones and business partners. Ensure all parties involved are on the same page. Inform your partners about what you plan for your share of the business. Otherwise, they may tie your family up in litigation following your death. 

Make sure to also talk to your loved ones. Is a family member interested in running the family business? If all members of your family already have other obligations to fulfill, you don’t want to burden one of them with a business they cannot run. 

Should You Work with a Lawyer?

Creating an estate plan is often complicated and it just gets harder when you introduce more assets and valuable items. Making a legally binding plan by yourself is hard. This is the reason you should consider working with a lawyer. Your estate planning attorney will ensure nothing gets missed.