Building Success Into Your Succession Plan

Succession planning is vital to the survival of small businesses. This Sole Proprietorship Buy-Sell Agreement can help ensure the continuity of yours.

What is succession planning?

Succession planning is a strategy to determine what will happen to your business when you retire, die, or become incapacitated. A succession plan sets out who will take over operating and managing the business, and how and when that transfer will take place. 

Scope of the Buy-Sell Agreement

This is a simple form of buy-sell agreement between the owner of a sole proprietorship and an employee who wants to purchase the business when the owner dies. Both parties want the business to continue to exist.

Key Points of the Agreement

• On the death of the proprietor, the executor or administrator of the estate will formalize the sale of the business to the employee.
• The employee will finance the purchase through proceeds of a life insurance policy on the life of the proprietor.
• The purchase transaction will include all real property, accounts receivable and other assets owned by the business.
• The parties will jointly determine the value of the business at the end of each fiscal year.

Format and Jurisdiction

This is a downloadable MS Word template from MegaDox.com. It is fully editable and can be customized to fit your specific requirements.

The form is generic legal contract and does not contain specific references to the laws of any country. It can be used in most common law jurisdictions.

Make sure that your small business continues on after you retire with this sample Ownership Succession Plan for Family Business.

• This sample Succession Plan is designed to assist the owners of a family operation or other small business in planning for the future of the business following the retirement, disability or death of the principal owner(s), through:
  • training other members of the family or company team in management roles,
  • granting stock options as incentives,
  • setting up a board of advisers with expertise in financial, legal and other areas,
  • developing business plans and initiatives to grow the business and protect the owners' interests.
• If you run a family business and you haven't put together a succession plan yet, don't put it off any longer. Download and complete this template.

Learn the Top 10 Tips to a Winning Exit Strategy with this 8-page article written by an expert business lawyer.

• The aim of the article is to help small business owner-managers prepare a succession plan to ensure that their businesses continue to thrive after their departure.
• These top 10 tips can help you put together a successful exit strategy that not only addresses your personal needs, but is also in the best interests of the business.
• The author is an Ontario lawyer whose main focus is small businesses.
• Available as a PDF download.