Too often, buy-sell agreements are created and signed without adequate discussion among and between the owners (shareholders, partners, members, or joint venture participants). Why is this? It can be difficult to talk about difficult issues. So if your buy-sell agreement is flawed, and potentially a ticking time bomb, chances are you share much of the fault with your fellow owners.
Tom Deans has written an excellent book for all business owners and their advisers. The title is Every Family’s Business.
Most buy-sell agreements are, indeed, ticking time bombs. There are several reasons for this and this post lists eight.
A few factors have come together recently to make the timing perfect for financial advisors to read Christopher Mercer’s Buy-Sell Agreements for Closely Held and Family Business Owners: How To Know Your Agreement Will Work Without Triggering It. This is a book that fully explores the intricacies of buy/sell agreements and the potential dangers buried beneath the legalese in most of the agreements currently in place.
The International Valuation Standards Board (IVSB), a board of the International Valuation StandCards Council (IVSC) met in public meeting format on May 4-5, 2011 in London. Richard Berkemeier, ASA (machinery & technical specialties) and Chris Mercer (that’s me) (business valuation, of course) were attending and representing the American Society of Appraisers. While there was a […]
Today’s guest post is by Lee Frederiksen, Ph.D. of Hinge Marketing, a leading branding and marketing firm specializing in the professional services. In addition to being Hinge’s Managing Partner, Lee is also its chief strategist and growth expert.
If there was a pent-up need for transactions in 2004-2007 and a need to transfer or liquefy massive wealth held in private companies, that need is substantially greater in early 2011. Why? Because little happened in the intervening years of financial crisis.
In this post, valuation concepts are applied to professional services firms.
According to The Trust Advisor Blog, Alaska, Delaware, Nevada and South Dakota remain the top states for establishing trusts. My home state of Tennessee is in the second tier of states with favorable trust powers. This list is reproduced from the blog. The table provides three tiers of states based on relative attractiveness for trusts. […]
What may be different is suggesting a specific amount and a rationale as to why that makes sense for the purchaser. If you are using a content strategy to promote your firm, you can put this approach to the test. Try it on any number of promotions. Offering a workshop? Why not suggest having three people attend as a team because that makes it easier to apply the new learning back at their company.
