Business Owners, make 2014 the year you commit to getting financially fit and healthy

This new year as you make your resolutions, commit to making one that will get you healthy and fit…financially. While setting personal resolutions has become second nature, the new year should also be the time when business owners review their business affairs to make sure things are in order.

Your business could be the largest asset in your estate and if you were to die or become disabled, what would happen to it? When coaching business owners, I am often asked what type of business financial resolutions I think they should make for themselves and their families.  Here are just six questions to consider to help get you started for 2014 and to include in discussions with your financial advisor, lawyer and accountant.

1. Have you made all of the necessary arrangements in regards to buy-sell or disability buy-sell agreements, legal documents, funding etc., with your business partners if you become disabled or die?
2. Do you have a properly-drafted, up-to-date will drawn up by a lawyer that includes a business succession plan as part of your estate plan? The successful transfer of a family business from one generation to the next can be notoriously difficult.
3. Have you discussed the issue of your online legacy upon death with your lawyer?
4. Does your family and/or executor know where all of your important papers are filed?
5. Are all of your tax affairs in order with all of your previous tax returns and in one place?
6. Do you need to have a family gathering to discuss your estate plan? The purpose of an estate plan is to provide comfort and security for your family. It is not uncommon for estates to be challenged by unhappy family members. The delays caused can drag on for years and the legal costs can severely deplete the estate or value of the business often leaving little for the beneficiaries along with damaged relationships and bad feelings.

Winston Churchill famously said “No one ever plans to fail – they fail to plan”.  Personal planning is important enough but when one throws a business into the mix, it really ups the stakes. Taking time to meet with the proper professionals, setting up the necessary plans and getting your affairs in order are just as important if not more to a business owner as having a great product, good customer service and happy clients.