Estate planning for business owners

For Arizona business owners, the business is usually the biggest asset on the personal balance sheet and the most fragile part of the estate. A plan that ignores that does more harm than good.

The risks of no succession plan

Without a plan, your business stops moving the day something happens to you. Vendors, employees, and lenders all wait for someone to have authority to act. Probate can take months. By the time it resolves, the business may be worth a fraction of what it was.

What a good business owner plan looks like

The three legs are a funded buy-sell agreement, an operating agreement that aligns with it, and a revocable trust that owns your membership or shares. Each one solves a different problem, and they only work if they are coordinated.

Entity structure review

Many business owners last updated their LLC operating agreement when they formed the company. If you have added partners, taken on debt, or changed tax election since then, it is almost certainly outdated.

Buy-sell agreements

A buy-sell is the contract that governs what happens to ownership if an owner dies, becomes disabled, or wants out. Funded with insurance, it means the remaining owners get the business and the departing family gets cash.

Key person considerations

Sometimes the critical asset is not your ownership, but an employee who holds the business together. Planning for their departure or disability is part of a complete owner plan.