Succession in medium-sized enterprises
In Germany, 70,000 medium-sized enterprises have to be transferred to a successor per year. The successful design of a succession plan for an entrepreneur is amongst their most important tasks.
To plan one's own succession is one of the most difficult human decisions for an entrepreneur: To retire on time and to preserve one's own life work. As part of any succession plan there is a multitude of different aspects. Apart from legal and important tax considerations one has to consider the general economic conditions, the needs and interests of the entrepreneur and his family, as well as the expectations of the management, employees, business partners, banks, and investors.
Our support
We can assist in designing the correct option to succeed and to extensively accompany the succession process.
- Discussing a family succession
- Assistance in emergency planning (proxies, testament, living will ...)
- Preparing tax design options
- Preparing the creation of a Foundation (e.g. Family Foundation)
- Business Valuation
- If a solution within the family is not possible: selling the business or shares to employees (MBO), to external managers (MBI), or to other external stakeholders
- Testing and evaluating all options within and outside the company
- Enforcing last wills (e.g. large assets, corporate shares, to reduce inheritance disputes, ...)
Success factors
According to our experience, the critical success factors in the succession process for small and medium-sized enterprises are:
- Business strategy and market position of the company
- Early involvement of the families as well as the heirs and legatees in the succession process
- Leadership and management organization for the transfer within the family
- Financing of the company and of the retiring entrepreneur