Nobody likes to think about it too much, but inevitably one day you will have to leave your busi­ness or farm, whether by sell­ing up, retir­ing or leav­ing for health reasons.

It is very impor­tant to have a suc­ces­sion plan in place that makes the tran­si­tion easy not only for your­self but also for your fam­i­ly or employ­ees and min­imis­es the chances of the busi­ness or farm hav­ing to be sold up when you leave

• The assess­ment of assets
• The assess­ment of like­ly taxation
• Advice regard­ing the pos­si­bil­i­ty of claims against the estate by third parties
• The pro­tec­tion of assets

Estate plan­ning is an active process of re-eval­u­at­ing the estate when cir­cum­stances in life change, such as:

• New­ly mar­ried cou­ples or those divorcing
• A change to the fam­i­ly’s asset pool
• A change in work­ing con­di­tions such as the buy­ing or sell­ing of a business
• The estab­lish­ment of dis­cre­tionary trusts

A suc­cess­ful plan is made involv­ing all fam­i­ly mem­bers as it will take into account not only pro­vi­sions for your retire­ment income but also the plans, apti­tudes and exist­ing assets of younger generations.