How to Make Sure Your Small Business Outlives You

FROM TIME.COM

If you’re a small business owner, you’re probably focused on day-to-day needs. But looking ahead to what will happen when you retire or pass away should be a top priority.

If you pass away without a plan in place, you’ll leave heirs without clears instructions, potentially jeopardizing the business you’ve worked so hard to build.

“Small business owners need to plan for their estate even more than the average person does,” says CPA Kelley Long. “Not doing so can destroy your family and business. And a good estate plan can take years to put in place, so this is not a conversation you want to procrastinate on.”

Add in the fact that your business likely accounts for the largest component of your net worth, and it’s easy to see why you should take some time to work on the future of your business—by meeting with an estate planning attorney to talk about these six key components of a solid estate plan.

Will

At the very least, your estate plan should include a will. This document allows you to specify how you want your assets to be transferred, and to whom, after you die. It also lets you identify an executor who will take charge of those assets and manage their disbursement according to your instructions.

You’ll also want to include a provision that gives your executor or another trusted individual access to a list of all online bank accounts, email accounts, file sharing sites, social networking sites, and their corresponding passwords. If you’re the only person running the business, important information will be inaccessible to heirs if you don’t provide this access. In some states, not even family members or appointed fiduciaries can get into these accounts if they don’t already have the information. Nor can they force companies to give them access, says estate planning attorney William Sanderson, co-chair of the American Bar Association’s real property, trust and estate law business planning committee.

This is why you’ll want to keep a document detailing all your accounts and passwords in a secure place that you can also easily access to update as needed.

“My most prepared client keeps a notebook filed with all his important papers locked away in a safe. He updates this list and his notebook regularly,” says Sanderson. “I recommend other small business owners try and implement the same strategy and let a spouse or trusted person know how to access them.”

Trusts

Like a will, a trust allows you to control what happens to your assets after you die. But this legal entity has several advantages over a will. Any items you place under the ownership of the trust will bypass the probate process. Thus assets owned by the trust can be transferred to heirs much more quickly; your estate will remain private; and, depending on the kind of trust you set up, it could dramatically reduce the legal fees and estate taxes your estate or heirs will have to pay. And with a revocable or living trust, the terms and assets can be easily changed if your decisions change.

Power of Attorney

When you have payroll obligations, you should consider creating a durable general power of attorney document, which allows you to name an individual to carry out your business affairs should you become incapacitated, says Sanderson. If you don’t have this in place and something happens to you, the court will appoint a guardian to handle your affairs. “It can add a lot of stress to a business owner’s life at a time when they don’t need any added stress,” says Sanderson. “This little bit of extra work upfront could save a lot of headache should it ever be needed.”