Succession Planning Services

Often your business represents your largest financial asset, and perhaps a lifetime of work. At some point you will be ready to leave it. Altus Exit Strategies, a wholly-owned subsidiary of ARB, provides business succession planning services can help you prepare for the successful exit you desire.

Ideally, succession planning services begin many years before you plan to exit. Whether you plan to pass your business to family members, sell your interest to a partner, sell the company to an employee group, or seek an outside buyer, the operational, and financial considerations of business succession demand long-range planning and a team of CPAs and advisors who work together to educate you and help you create your own comprehensive exit plan.

How We Do It

Succession planning is more than identifying a successor owner and determining whether your business will be gifted or sold. It includes putting in place strategic, operational and financial processes to maximize the value of your business before you make one of the most important transitions of your life.

Our Altus Exit Strategies team will take you through our Seven Step Exit Planning Preparation™ process to help you examine all of the options available to you and then guide you in creating a succession plan. The planning process may include guidance in the areas of business valuation, organizational development, profitability improvement, strategic planning, key employee incentive, asset protection, business continuity planning and tax minimization strategies – depending on your needs. Since no one person can be a specialist in everything we deploy a team approach to client service.

Once a business succession plan is created, the process continues as the ARB team helps you implement and re-evaluate your plan, to ensure that it remains relevant to your changing circumstances.

Comprehensive Exit Planning

Utilizing the Seven Step Exit Planning Process™, we work to identify and to accomplish your goals in exiting your business.

Key Employee Compensation Plans

Align your key employees’ compensation plans with actions that will increase the value of your company.

Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) Consulting

Understand the annual compliance required after ESOP creation in conjunction with succession planning.

Key Person Insurance Planning

Provide for the financial well-being of your key employees and your family should you die or become incapacitated.

Pre-Sale Due Diligence

Understanding the tax implications of your succession plan, how to leverage tax savings opportunities, and how to maximize available tax benefits.

Identify Key Value Drivers

Identify and implement strategies to enhance your company’s Key Value Drivers to generate a premium price for your business.

Identify Successors or Suitable Buyers

Make a plan for the best method for your exit, whether it be a sale to a third party or a transfer to family, co-owners, or employees.

Value and Marketability Assessment

See the impact of various possibilities before finalizing a sale or transfer.

Tax Strategies

Get the facts before you make a major decision.

Shareholder Buy-Sell Agreements

Work with the advisory team to ensure the agreement meets the legal and tax requirements of the transaction structure.

Estate Planning

As the business owner, align your company’s succession plan with your personal goals for your legacy and estate.

The Seven Step Exit Planning Process™

Our Exit Planning system is a process, not a product. We aren’t vested in promoting a particular goal. Instead, we work to identify and to accomplish your goals. Our system works because it is a customizable process that takes you to the successful exit you desire. Sign up for our e-newsletters to learn more about the exit planning process.

Leaving Your Business is Inevitable

A white paper on the Exit Planning Process

Our quick 15-minute Assessment helps you evaluate your readiness. Or, learn more about our Seven Step Exit Planning Process™ and how to develop a road map and plan for exiting your business. Contact us for a complimentary consultation to discuss your goals for transitioning away from your business.

How We’re Helping Businesses with Succession

Valuation and KPIs: By determining the current value of their business as well as what business changes will push the most to the bottom line, we help business owners ensure they will receive the highest value when they exit in the next few years. We help clients identify key performance indicators and implement strategies to enhance their company’s Value Drivers to generate a premium price for their business. Key Employee Compensation: When key employees are appropriately compensated, they are often more productive and efficient, which can increase the value of your company. We help business owners establish employee compensation plans that align with their business and succession planning goals. Gap Analysis: We help business owners determine whether a gap exists between the resources they have today and the resources they will need to achieve their financial goals. The Gap Analysis gives owners a new and more realistic understanding of how much time, capital, and effort it will take to get from where they are to where they want and need to be. Emergency Operating Plan: We help business owners structure emergency operation plans, which is a written plan that serves as a non-binding guide for their families. These plans provide suggestions and instructions for how the owner’s family should address business and personal financial issues in the event of the owner’s untimely death or incapacitation.

Succession Planning Services Team Leaders

David V. Jean, CPA, CCIFP, CExP | Principal

Succession Planning Services Practice Leader

David works with business owners who want to improve the value of their business before they sell through Altus Exit Strategies’ Seven Step Exit Planning Preparation™ process. He has worked with companies from $5 million to $50 million in revenue across a range of industries.