One of the elements of the family business strategy is a well thought-out succession plan. Despite the introduction of the institution of succession management in Poland, many elements of the process of handing over the company to subsequent generations require prior actions and arrangements between family members. This helps to avoid unnecessary disputes and administrative, organizational, legal and tax problems.
We offer the support of a team of experts who, taking into account the personal and business situation of the entrepreneur, will create a safe and effective succession plan.
We consider with the client both those variants of succession in which the founder of the family business wants to keep an influence on setting the direction of the company’s development and those in which he wants to give up the business and hand over the helm to other family members.
We offer solutions that are safe both in legal and tax terms. Our goal is to maintain continuity of the company. To this end, we examine the company’s permits, administrative decisions, signed contracts, support or funding agreements. Only a comprehensive verification of the legal and economic situation of a company can protect it from such negative consequences as the return of subsidies, termination of loan agreements, lack of possibility to continue depreciation or, more broadly, “loss” of tax-deductible costs, problems with the land and mortgage registers of real estate or the creation of unplanned tax burdens.
Creating a family company while the successor is still alive with the help of our experienced team is essential to maintain good family relations. By making strategic management decisions with the participation of the business founder, we avoid unnecessary speculation about his will after he hass passed away.
Sometimes planning the succession will involve preparing the company for its sale. This usually happens when potential successors with their own vision of the future are not interested in continuing their business. In such a situation, apart from choosing an advantageous legal form, the firm’s team helps to carry out due diligence of the company, which helps to obtain a more advantageous offer from the potential investor. We support the client in defining the company’s value, determining its potential and its strengths and weaknesses.
We help to implement the jointly created succession plan by representing clients in administrative, tax or court proceedings, as part of their applications to the National Court Register or land and mortgage registers. We assist in the preparation of a will, donation agreement, partnership agreement or marriage contract. We assist in organizational changes, in contacts with employees and contractors. In cooperation with statutory auditors, we provide explanations to the accounting departments of companies. We contact banks and financial institutions, as well as institutions providing financial support, in order to obtain their consent to the organizational changes in the company if necessary.