Risk & Business Magazine JGS Insurance Risk & Business Magazine Winter 2017 | Page 27

SUCCESSION PLANNING
BY: JOHN E. MCENERY
DIRECTOR COAST ADVISORS, LLC
FINANCE AND BUSINESS CONSULTANTS
A
Succession Planning For
Business Owners
successful succession
plan requires time and
strategizing. Whether
planning to pass on a family-
owned small business to your
children, or to a valued leader at your firm,
or just sell the company, you need to have
a corporate estate plan in writing upon the
conception of your company—and ideally
five to six years in advance.
To let it slide leaves you vulnerable, as are
92 percent of companies which fail to have
in place a “comprehensive development
program,” reports the American
Management Association. About a
quarter of companies have no succession
preparation at all.
Here are ten reasons for having a
preplanned exit strategy:
1) Wait too long and you or your family
might have an unexpected death or
catastrophic illness that would spike the
cost of life insurance compared to a policy
purchased when the principals are healthy.
2) The more in advanc