Succession planning for business owners

If most of your wealth is in a company you own, your succession plan and your company’s legal documents need to work together. I help owner-managed and family companies plan who owns the business next, protect it if a shareholder dies, and keep as much inheritance tax relief as possible.

Why business owners need a plan now

• Business relief is now capped. Since 6 April 2026, full relief from inheritance tax applies only to the first £2.5m of qualifying business and agricultural property per person. Above that, the effective rate is 20%. Unused allowance can pass to a spouse or civil partner.
• Pensions join the estate from April 2027. Many owners planned to leave their pension untouched. That pot will soon count towards inheritance tax too.
• A shareholder’s death can unsettle the company. Without the right agreements, their shares pass under their will to people who may have no part in the business, and the remaining owners have no right to buy them.
• Out-of-date documents cause problems. Model articles and old shareholder agreements rarely reflect how a family company actually runs, or what the owners want to happen next.

How I can help

• Company succession planning: deciding who should own the business next, whether family, a co-owner or management, and when and how shares should pass, during your lifetime or on death.
• Family investment companies: a company owned by your family to hold wealth taken out of your business or the proceeds of a sale, so that future growth sits outside your estate while you keep control.
• Share reorganisations: creating new share classes, such as freezer and growth shares, to pass future growth to the next generation, separate income from control, or bring family members in.
• Shareholder agreements: clear rules on decision-making, dividends, deadlock, and what happens when a shareholder wants to leave, falls out with the others, divorces or dies.
• Cross option agreements: giving surviving shareholders the right to buy a deceased shareholder’s shares, usually funded by life cover. Drafted as options rather than a binding contract for sale, so business relief is not put at risk.
• Bespoke articles of association: share class rights, transfer and pre-emption rules, permitted transfers to family members and trusts, and leaver provisions, written for your company rather than taken from a template.
• Wills and trusts for shareholders: making sure shares that qualify for business relief are left in the most tax-efficient way, and that your will matches your company documents.

How it works

1. A free 30-minute call. We talk about your company, your family and what you want to happen next.
2. A review of what you have. I look at your articles, any shareholder agreement, your share structure and your will.
3. Your options, explained. I set out what I recommend and why, with a fixed fee for each piece of work.
4. Putting it in place. I draft the documents and work with your accountant on the tax side, including any HMRC clearances needed.

Why work with me

I’m a solicitor with over 20 years’ experience in trusts, tax and estate planning, including family investment companies and share structures for family businesses. I do all of the work personally, on fixed fees, and I work alongside your accountant rather than around them: they keep your accounts and tax returns, and I deal with the legal side.