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greenoak
04-11-2011, 09:38 AM
where would you go to get some basic overview of passing down a family business or setting things up in the best way...
i want to work till im in my 80s....but i guess i should start thinking about this issue.....im kind of in la la land on this subject...
one big business....2 kids ...one in it one not.... to liquidate and share with both kids would be breaking up the business.... for them to share would not happpen....
its too valuable to just give to the one...
we work together pretty well now, no big crisis....im healthy supposedly and would hope for at lest 10 more years....im not into retirement and my son figures i wouldnt ever retire.... he thinks ill be out there at 90...ha ha...
any resources apppreciated...thanks

Spider
04-11-2011, 10:38 AM
Don't worry about the kids - they can take care of themselves, and you're not responsible for them, anymore. Do what's best for you.

However, I have no resources to suggest. Sorry.

Business Attorney
04-11-2011, 12:49 PM
Ann, I'll see if I can pull together some resources for you. This is something that comes up regularly with me since many of my clients have children in the business. It is a really touchy subject and unfortunately is often badly handled, causing sibling vs. sibling resentment that literally breaks families apart after the matriarch/patriarch is gone (and sometimes even while they are still around).

Paper Shredder Clay
04-11-2011, 01:48 PM
I agree it is a touchy issue. My parents wonder a similar thing about the family business. Neither one of us is in the business, but I have worked the most in the past for them. You don't want to cheat one of your kids, but if one kid doesn't have an interest in it, what are you to do? You could make it a llc, and maybe doe some kind of share thing.

Harold Mansfield
04-11-2011, 01:59 PM
It's definitely touchy. But so is anything of value that is left when a family member passes and leaves survivors. I've been through it and it sucks. And it doesn't even matter about the financial stability of the people involved.

I guess the first thing to determine would be who really wants it and has the passion to take it over. Probably best to get an understanding of that now and plan accordingly.

greenoak
04-11-2011, 02:24 PM
thanks david....looking forward to it...
one does want it eborg....but i cant just give it to him and not her...its worth a lot of money....its the total income for my son...who is a major part of it all... ....so its a big thing for us..the other lives 100 miles away and has her own thing going...i would have to be fair with her of course!!!
im ready to staRT READING UP ON IT and maybe get a grasp of some of the options are....and start some talks with the family.....so maybe we can get some ways to look at it and try and work it out...
or maybe just follow spider and leave it half and half and let them figure it out...that would be/ probably would be a disaster tho...like cutting the baby in half....

Business Attorney
04-11-2011, 03:34 PM
... or maybe just follow spider and leave it half and half and let them figure it out...that would be/ probably would be a disaster tho...like cutting the baby in half....

That is almost always the worst possible solution. Leaving it half and half is not itself necessarily always a bad idea, but letting the children figure it out when you could have taken some steps to make the co-ownership work (or at least work much better) causes unnecessary stress and strain. Every family is different, but over the years I have I seen a variety of family succession plans work and I have never seen any plan that wasn't considerably better than having no plan at all.

greenoak
04-11-2011, 04:00 PM
right...i wouldnt do that...
. my goal is to have my son keep it going as he w ants to and still be fair to the daughter..... and have a way out for me in case dh does talk me into retiring...in my 70s....
can you tell im working on a will!!! mine is about 35 yrs old....i am just in a jumble with all the homework our lawyer gave us.....its kind of horrible...and how many what ifs do you have to cover?

Business Attorney
04-11-2011, 04:39 PM
... how many what ifs do you have to cover?

Answer: All of the important ones and you have to decide what is important to you.

For example, I might say that in the unlikely event that my wife and all my children die before I do, I don't really care if state law dictates how my remaining estate is divvied up among my siblings and their heirs. Your lawyer, however, needs to ask you those questions. Someone else might say "My sister really needs the money and, besides, my brother hasn't talked to me in 45 years." Your lawyer won't know your answer unless he asks.

greenoak
04-11-2011, 05:22 PM
good job for sticking up for your tribe...i know you are right ...
.and i have a good lawyer,who i respect a lot, and who im probably dissappointing by my speed on this...

Spider
04-11-2011, 05:47 PM
...or maybe just follow spider and leave it half and half and let them figure it out....Just for the record, in case you do split it 50/50 between them and cause a family fued - I did not suggesst that. In fact I made no mention of leaving any of it to anyone.

Harold Mansfield
04-11-2011, 06:00 PM
When my grandfather (my Dad's father) was sick, he sat down with my Mom and told her what to expect in case something happened. My Mom has also had the same conversation with me. Both were/are pretty cut and dry situations.
On the other hand, when my uncle passed ( my grandmothers brother), he had no will, no one had seen his only daughter in over 20 years, never spoke with anyone about his wishes, and none of us knew anything about his finances. He left a substantial amount of property with a large lake, including business license, equipment, lumber and well water rights. It's a mess and is still being sorted out 2 years later. I am sure that when it gets down to the nitty gritty that it will cause some strain on the family, but not with us ( me and my mom) because it's so unorganized that we want nothing to do with it.

I can see how if he had taken care of just a little business, this would have been taken care of already. He was also a little paranoid towards the end and was loosing what was left of his mind, so he went all "Howard Hughes" on us. Even when we realized that he had lost it, by then it was too late to get him to agree to do any paperwork because he was completely tin foil hat paranoid.

The unfortunate thing about it is that Lawyers will make out like bandits, which I know would be completely against his wishes because he didn't trust lawyers (or banks, or politicians, or the newspaper, or satellites, or the government, and so on) ..which is why he had no paperwork. And what he did have is a mess of code, and misdirections that would confuse the CIA.
Funny how that worked out.

Talk to the family so that they aren't left wondering what to do, or what you wanted.

greenoak
04-11-2011, 06:43 PM
thats sad eborg..your uncle sounds very familiar.....
. altho my family would never sit back and stay out of it if a big pile of money and property were involved... ...
i want to do the right thing and waaaay ahead of time hopefully...

Harold Mansfield
04-11-2011, 07:41 PM
After my grandfather passed and me being his sole beneficiary still got ripped off by his girlfriend and her family...my Mother put it plainly, "I just want you to know what to look for so that no one else get's it, or the state takes it.".

Blessed
04-18-2011, 05:20 PM
Definitely figure things out now - along with any thing that isn't business, just personal stuff - who wants and gets what? My grandmother didn't do that and as a result the executor of her estate, one of my aunts, made the decisions based on how she felt about you so since I managed to anger her when I was 18 and she still hasn't been willing to forgive me... yeah, there were things my Grandmother had told me she wanted to pass on to me after she died, but I didn't get - because Grandma didn't have it written down. I've done my best to mend that relationship - but it takes both of us so... oh well. I have what's really important - my memories of Grandma & Grandpa!