Oklahoma City estate planning lawyers can provide help if you are a business owner. While everyone needs an estate plan, it is especially important for business owners to put plans in place to ensure their company will continue after they are gone. You should be able to make your company your legacy, but this can only happen if your business survives your incapacity, death or departure.
Parman & Easterday has helped many business owners find smart and strategic methods for transferring company ownership. Our legal team will work with you to understand the various issues that could arise as you transfer your company. We can help you find the best and most cost-effective way to transfer your company, either during your lifetime or after your death. To learn more about the services our Oklahoma City estate planning lawyers can provide to business owners, give us a call today.
How Can You Pass Your Company On To Your Kids?
There are a variety of different options for passing your company to your kids. One option is a family limited partnership, which transfers ownership to your children or other beneficiaries by making them limited partners. You would be able to retain control and transfer ownership over the course of your lifetime and reduce the risk of estate tax, as long as the transfers of ownership are structured in an appropriate way. Parman & Easterday can help you decide if this option is a viable approach to take.
You could also incorporate your business and use various techniques to transfer the ownership shares of your company to your loved ones, either during the course of your life or after you have passed away. There are multiple corporate structures, including S-corporations and C-corporations. So, you need to work with an experienced estate planning lawyer to understand the tax implications of different options.
Depending upon the nature of your business, there are additional options that may be available to you. Your plan needs to be personalized to your family and company. We recommend you work with an experienced attorney to make an effective and lasting business succession plan.
Why Is It Important To Choose The Right Business Succession Plan?
It is important to choose the right technique to facilitate the transfer of your business. Otherwise, your business could be in jeopardy. There are a many sources of risks to your business which you should understand and work with a lawyer to mitigate.
One major risk is that it will take too long to transfer the ownership of your company to new owners. If your company transfers through the probate process, for example, it could be years until the new owners formally take control. A long period of uncertainty over who owns the business and how the business should operate may destroy the company’s value or force it to close.
Another serious risk is that the value of the business could be substantial enough that you end up owing estate tax. If your estate must pay estate taxes and does not have enough liquid assets to pay the bill, there may be no other option but to sell business assets or even the company itself to satisfy the bill. In order to keep the company, your beneficiaries could be forced to take a loan to pay taxes, which could put your company’s profitability in serious jeopardy.
Getting Help From Oklahoma City Estate Planning Lawyers
Oklahoma City estate planning lawyers at Parman & Easterday can provide you with personalized help in passing your company to your children or to your intended beneficiaries. We will work with you to create the right plan so your company can continue providing products or services to your community and provide a good lifestyle for your children and grandchildren.
To find out more about the many ways in which our legal team can help business owners, give us a call today at (405) 843-6100 or contact us online. You can also join us for a free seminar to learn more about all of the different services that we provide to individuals and families using the legacy planning process. Call now so we can help you get your plans for the future in place.
Since founding Parman & Easterday in 1985, Larry has led over 1,000 free, community-service education programs and helped more than 10,000 Oklahoma families go from putting off their estate plan to getting it done. His goal for every client is the same: to become the person their family calls "the one who took care of everything."
Larry is the author of three books: The Straight Shooter's Guide to Estate Planning; Estate Planning Basics; and Guiding Those Left Behind in Oklahoma. He served as Oklahoma's Secretary of State and Secretary of Commerce, and his firm is the only member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys in the state.
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