Business Succession

At VFH, we understand that your business is your life’s work. We service a wide range of clients, ranging from clients with moderate sized estates to high net worth individuals and families, including executives, closely held business owners and sports figures.  Clients rely on the attorneys at VFH to be their trusted advisor and we provide ongoing counseling and advice in all facets of business succession and multiple generation planning. 

While many businesses do not survive long after a change in leadership, we strive to assist clients in establishing a plan to ensure the long-term continued success of their businesses and to help maximize the return for founders of the business upon the occurrence of a "triggering event." We believe that developing a succession plan is a multi-phase process that many times begins with reorganization of owners’ equity, preparing or updating wills and trusts, DPOA's, reviewing insurance policies, etc. We also focus on buy-sell agreements (a/k/a shareholders' agreements), compensation issues and potential employee participation alternatives. We work closely with skilled financial planners, bankers, accountants and insurance agents to achieve personal and financial goals for our clients. We focus closely on cutting-edge legal and tax planning techniques to maximize potential tax planning opportunities, never losing sight of the sensitive personal and family dynamics that often accompany these difficult decisions.  Further, VFH attorneys practicing in this area work closely with the firm's Trust and Estate attorneys to provide clients with the ability to maximize the integration and cohesiveness between their estate and business succession plans.