Sooner or later, everyone who has come
into some money in their lifetime, whether by gift or succession
or else supplying their own – generally hard – labor gets to
thinking about what should happen to it in the future. What is the
best way to preserve it, in what form, who for, for what purpose?
Basically, this means making succession arrangements.
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The first is to make a will specifying what should
happen after a given date.
The other way is to carry out either a partial or total hand-over
before that date.
The advantage of the second method is that you can play an important
role in the handover itself, affecting its outcome in whatever way you
need to.
The main focus of our business activities has become supplying advice
and support in relation to the advance design of succession arrangements.
This mainly involves issues of business succession, as well as situations
where the biggest part of the succession revolves around real estate.
This needs some explanation. We have the necessary technical expertise.
We know the way things work. We are impartial and do not have the sensitivities
that result from many years of "water under the bridge". For this reason, we
are able to do whatever job that needs to be done completely independently
and without any preconceived ideas. Although we have the ability to see the
simplest of things, we can often surprise you by coming up with uncomplicated
yet ingenious solutions to problems; and these solutions will be both
logical and workable. Not only this, we also have the ability to convince
everyone affected that these solutions are the right ones.
Business succession
This topic affects everyone who wants to hand over
their business without actually giving up the business itself. It also affects
everyone who wants to take over a business or profit from the opportunity
of starting a business.
The future financial security of all businesses is tied up with the
creation of clear succession arrangements. Making these kinds of
arrangements, which represent new ground for each and every business owner,
demands courage, time and energy. They are often put off until the
"right time" – perhaps in the hope that the issues and conflicts involved
will somehow resolve themselves in the meantime. Unfortunately, because
that just doesn't happen on its own, the "right time" often comes too late.
Putting it another way, the best time, the right time is always "now".
No business is like another, and no succession situation is like another.
We place your individual situation right at the center of the advice that
we give you; and we are always happy to work together with you our client
– whenever you want this to happen, that is – to devise a future strategy
that is the right one for you in business, organizational, financial and
human terms.
Employees, business partners, life partners, children, potential successors
and last but not least, the business owner him or herself: all these
individuals are affected by succession and succession arrangements.
It is not always easy to find the right successor. It sometimes happens
that the candidate first thought of proves to be a poor choice. In this
case, we will sit down with you and work out the criteria relevant to the
selection. Then, we will work on a strategy to prepare the successor for
the tasks he or she will face.
And what happens if no successor can be found for a family business within
a family? In this case, we will come up with other options. These could
range from outright sale to outside management or even creating a
foundation.
In this area, we will not get involved with providing any legal advice. This
is done by arrangement with us and you; and will be implemented by selected
attorneys, notaries, tax consultants and auditors. But the ideas always
come from us. And we check whether these professionals have provided the
kind of solutions that will lead to the business success required.
Making succession arrangements from one day to the next and completing
them with a few strokes of a pen – this is fantasy, not reality. Experience
shows that successful succession arrangements do not result from rash
decision-making but from following a consistent plan of action. Even
so, both the business and the chosen successor need to be prepared for
the transition. Part of this means that existing structures and objectives
might need to be rethought and if necessary adapted to take account of
any new circumstances. We accompany these processes with both advice
and action, where necessary.
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