Management and Ownership Succession
What is Management and Family Succession Planning?
Succession planning, sometimes called exit strategies, is the process of transferring the ownership and management of the business from the existing owners and managers to the next.
From a business owner’s perspective, exit strategies are a core component of succession that can take many forms, including:
- Trade sale
- Management buy-out or buy-in
- Selling the business to family members
- Floating on the ASX
- Introducing outside shareholders
How do we do it?
Our Privately Held Business (PHB) methodology provides the foundation for providing all of our PHB services and is the cornerstone of how we deliver our services and communicate with our clients. We work with business owners to provide independent advice to all their stakeholders and have the history and knowledge to provide the necessary commercial and taxation advice, as well as the ‘people’ issues that are implicit in succession planning for privately held businesses.
A succession plan includes:
- what strategies are currently in place or contemplated
- options for the owner and the business
- the agreed solutions
- a plan to communicate and implement the agreed solutions
- the plan is reviewed regularly to ensure it remains relevant.
What do I get?
The outcome is a documented succession plan that includes:
- your objectives
- suitable management candidates (if applicable)
- the management successor
- impacts of post-succession
- ownership succession issues.
How does it help me?
Proper planning is crucial to a successful business succession. There are many issues to consider ensuring you exit the business in a commercial and tax-effective manner. Three to five years of planning is typically required to maximise the value of the business and the vendor’s wealth.
Family-owned businesses often have their own unique set of issues when dealing with succession. Grant Thornton are specialists in this area.
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