Maintaining a healthy relationship with the people you love can be difficult when you also want your business to thrive. I have the advice you need to be successful at both. I work with a lot of family-run companies and have been seeing many of them run into the situation where the parents have not properly planned for the transition of their business to their children after they pass away. This creates conflict among the siblings that are left behind because the parents did not complete the necessary work prior to passing.
Transitioning Your Estate Fairly to Your Children
If you own and operate your own company, you know what a challenge it can be to develop an estate plan. You might have some kids who work in the business and some who don’t, or you might have an in-law who works in the business and other kids who don’t. What do you do if the business is 80% of your estate, though? Are you going to give it to the family member who’s owning and operating the company and not the others? If you do, that probably won’t make for a very happy Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner.