Pass on a business.A founder's continuity checklist.

A business that can run without its founder is safer for the family and worth more to everyone. This checklist is organized from most urgent to longest range. Work through it with your attorney, accountant, and insurance professional.

Part 1: The emergency plan

If something happened to you tomorrow, these are the things that keep the doors open.

• Name who steps in, plus a backup, and tell them.
• Add a second authorized signer at the bank, or make sure your power of attorney covers business accounts. Ask your bank what it will accept.
• Write down the essentials: bank and credit contacts, payroll provider, key vendors, key clients, insurance agent, attorney, accountant.
• Secure access to systems: accounting software, website, domain, email, social accounts. Use a business password manager with shared access.
• Know where the documents are: leases, licenses, permits, loan agreements, contracts, insurance policies.
• Check your personal guarantees. If you personally guaranteed a business loan or lease, your estate may be responsible. Know what they are.

Part 2: The ownership documents

• Operating or partnership agreement. Does it say what happens when an owner dies, becomes disabled, divorces, or wants out?
• Buy-sell agreement. Sets who can buy an owner's share, how it's valued, and how it gets paid for.
• Funding for the buy-sell. Often life insurance on each owner, so there's cash to buy the share when it's needed.
• Key person insurance. Pays the business if a critical person dies, to cover the disruption while it adjusts.
• Your personal estate plan. Your will or trust should address your ownership interest. Some owners hold business interests in a trust.

Part 3: The business in writing

• Document one core process each week: how you price, how you hire, how you deliver.
• Build a simple organizational chart showing who does what, and where you are the only one.
• Introduce at least one other person to every important client relationship.
• Keep clean, current financial statements. Buyers, lenders, and successors all rely on them.

Part 4: The successor

• Decide on a path: family, key employee or team, employee ownership, outside sale, or planned closing.
• Have a direct conversation with your likely successor about whether they want the role.
• Create a development plan with real responsibility and a timeline.
• Decide separately who will lead and who will own.
• Tell your team what the plan is when the time is right. Uncertainty drives good people away.

Part 5: The value

• Get a professional valuation, and update it every few years.
• Understand the tax consequences of each path. Ask your accountant early, because some strategies take years to set up.
• Reduce concentration: too much revenue from one client, or too much know-how in one person, lowers value.
• Consider how the sale or transfer fits your own retirement needs.

Part 6: Your next chapter

• Write down what a good week looks like for you after the business.
• Decide what role, if any, you want after the transition.
• Talk with your spouse or family about what the change will mean at home.

Your advisor team

Most founders need four people: an attorney for the agreements and estate plan, an accountant for tax and valuation questions, an insurance professional for buy-sell funding and key person coverage, and a financial advisor for how the business fits your family’s overall wealth. If they’ve never met each other, introduce them.

For the full guide, read our white paper, Beyond the Founder.

This page is general education, not legal, tax, or financial advice.