Business owners
Continuity planning, buy-sell agreements, succession.
If you own a business — even a small LLC — your estate plan needs to do double duty. The personal documents (trust, will, POAs) handle your individual assets. A separate set of structures handles what happens to the business if you die, become incapacitated, or want to retire. The two have to work together, or the business can fail in the gap.
The most common tools: a buy-sell agreement (what happens to your interest when you exit, who buys it, at what price), key-person life insurance (funds the buy-sell), a succession plan (who runs the business day-to-day until ownership transitions), and integration with your revocable trust (so business interests don't trigger probate). For owners with multiple entities or larger operations, we sometimes also use family limited partnerships for asset protection.
We're not a business law firm — we're estate planners who handle the estate-planning side of business ownership. We coordinate with your existing business attorney or refer one if you don't have one. The work we do is the estate-side architecture — the documents that make sure your family or partners aren't left scrambling.
What this means for you
- Without a buy-sell, your business interest passes through your estate to your heirs — who may not know how to run it, may not get along with your partners, or may want to sell at the worst possible time.
- Key-person life insurance funds the buyout so the surviving partners (or the business itself) can buy your heirs out at a fair price without bankrupting the business.
- Trust integration matters. Your business interest titled to the trust avoids probate. Titled individually, it goes through formal administration — which can drag the business through court for months.
- Operating agreements need death/disability provisions. If your LLC's operating agreement is silent on what happens when an owner dies, default state law applies — often awkwardly.
- Succession ≠ buy-sell. Succession is who runs the business when you can't. Buy-sell is who owns it. Both need answers.
Recommended documents
Most situations route to one or two probate paths. Here are the most likely fits — read the detailed page on whichever feels closest, or use the consult to confirm.
What we watch for
Easy on people, tough on problems. These are the things that catch families off guard — we've seen them all and we plan around them.
- No buy-sell agreement. The number-one pitfall. Without one, your heirs and your partners may end up in court fighting over price and control.
- Buy-sell with no funding mechanism. A buy-sell that says "the surviving partners shall buy at fair market value" doesn't say where the money comes from. Key-person life insurance is the standard answer.
- Outdated valuations in the buy-sell. Many buy-sells say "$X based on 2018 valuation." Your business has likely appreciated since then. Buy-sells should reference a recent valuation method, not a fixed dollar.
- Spouse isn't the right successor. Sometimes a spouse who knows nothing about the business is named to inherit ownership. The planning should usually be: spouse gets value, partners or family member gets ownership.
- No coordination with the business attorney. Estate plan and operating agreement say different things. We make sure they don't.
Questions families ask us
Business owners often delay estate planning because it feels overwhelming — too many moving pieces, too many decisions. We'll handle the personal side and coordinate with your business attorney on the entity side. You'll end up with a plan that protects both your family and your business — and that's the whole point of doing this.