Succession Planning Scorecard

December 22, 2017 by Arthur Orzame, CPA

We have all seen the commercials on TV where a family run business is celebrating a big anniversary or black-and-white images show a business in its early days when the horse and buggy were still common. While it isn’t unusual to see a company handed down from generation to generation, it is much more complicated than it may seem. So how do find the answer to the question: “Who will run my company when I retire?” Read on.

Even the most loving families with successful companies encounter difficulties on both personal and business levels. Siblings that are at odds, meddling in-laws, family members in trouble with the law, investment failures, and myriad other human realities await every business owner hoping to keep family in charge of the business after they leave.

On the road to internal succession, each of these realities can become a mountain to climb and may even deter you from continuing toward long-term family oversight. But there are a lot of things you can and should do to prepare for and minimize problems and take positive steps to help ensure your business legacy lives on.

In our guide Anatomy of a Succession Plan, written by Gordon Advisors’ Chief Operating Officer Jeff Farrington, MSM, and Principal Hannah Thoms, CPA, MSF, CFP®, we look at a variety of business succession strategies, what they involve, the pluses and minuses, and best practices. The guide offers steps to gaining new perspectives on your company, your employees and your retirement goals, and how they factor into your succession planning. Following the guide can help you begin succession planning knowing what resources you need to acquire and how to avoid pitfalls along the way, especially when considering keeping it in the family.

In addition to the guide, Gordon Advisors has created a Succession Planning Score Card to help you assess such things as your company assets and debts, your family members and their relationship to the company, pay and stock ownership and, yourself, relative to the pending succession.

Using the score card, you can get a clear and honest idea of individual employees and family members, their value to the company and how each might fit into your plan. You also find out what important decisions have yet to be made regarding the company and its leadership, and where the weak links are in your legacy chain.

The score card provides a simple way to “score” your company in 10 different categories starting at zero and going as high as 112 points. Once you reach the top, your succession plan is good to go!

Find out what you need to know and learn effective ways to make your business succession as seamless as possible by downloading Anatomy of a Succession Plan today. When you do you will get the Succession Planning Score Card as a supplement to the guide! Get planning today!