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Entrepreneurial Business and Wealth Succession Planning
Successful entrepreneurs often share a few core traits: they step outside their comfort zones, take calculated risks, and relentlessly focus on building their businesses. This “head down and get to work” mentality serves them well in capitalizing on opportunities and persevering through adversity. Oftentimes, however, entrepreneurs or custodians of family-owned “legacy” businesses do not focus early enough on a clear vision for business succession. Only once that vision is defined can a succession plan be designed and implemented to align key stakeholders and provide the legal, tax, and management framework needed to support it. Succession planning, like estate planning, is a process rather than an event, with goals and circumstances evolving over time. To protect both the business and the wealth it creates, business leaders must take the time to develop and implement meaningful succession plans. Dickinson Wright offers full-service succession planning for high-net-worth entrepreneurs, family businesses, executives of private and public companies, and principals of private equity firms. Our lawyers take the time to listen and understand your goals, then draw on their experience and resources to help define and achieve them. Central to this work is protecting against creditor claims, federal gift and estate tax exposure, management and family conflict, and unintended consequences. The time to act on succession planning is now. From a federal gift and estate tax perspective, today presents a historically favorable opportunity to transfer closely held businesses and wealth to the next generation. Tax laws and political priorities change. We help clients create certainty in an otherwise uncertain future. Our Team Our Business Succession practice group is comprised of corporate, tax, and trust lawyers who integrate business and corporate counsel with wealth succession and estate planning. We are proactive and accessible, providing practical solutions and actionable advice. With our guidance, clients are in a much position to realize their targeted business objectives while avoiding unnecessary legal, tax, and business risks. Our Services At Dickinson Wright, we believe effective legal advocacy requires not only a comprehensive knowledge of the law, but also a thorough understanding of our clients’ industries and businesses. Working closely with business owners and their CPAs, wealth advisors, and other professionals, our team develops personalized strategies to build, manage, and transfer wealth. Our work includes:
