✕
☰

How to Involve Adult Children in Succession Planning

by

Piotr Adamowicz@123rf

In succession planning, there are hundreds of decisions that must be made. These discussions and decisions should be made years before the parent’s death. However, not all adult children are up to the challenge – at least not without some guidance.

In fact, there are many family dynamics that stand as roadblocks to involving adult children in the succession planning process:

The list goes on and on. The challenges faced by families trying to deal with end-of-life decisions are deep, emotional, and interconnected. Business succession planning can expose or magnify raw emotions and is not the venue to solve intertwined family issues.

To be involved, adult children must – at the very least – be willing to collaborate in good faith for the benefit of their parent and the company.

Sometimes, it helps to see unfortunate turmoil in another family. This drives the adult children – regardless of their issues – to want to avoid the same.

They realize that they need to engage in a proactive process (along with their close advisors: lawyer, accountant, pastor/priest, etc.) to help minimize the stress and costly probate fees.  

Let’s face it. This conversation about death and funerals can be awkward, unwelcomed, and untouchable.

However, having a more clinical, structured approach, facilitated by trusted professionals, can help.

Involving Your Children in a Structured Planning Process

We have found that when the adult children discover a process (whether written or professional guidance) it enables them to be more objective. They understand the process will help them avoid cost and confusion in the event of their parent’s death. They want the process to go quickly, but that is not possible. There are many hundreds of details that must be addressed. Succession planning takes time, and adult children must not abandon the process midstream.

It’s helpful to break down the succession process into planning segments, so they can be more easily scheduled and completed.

These steps will help facilitate a family’s discussion and reduce the emotional tensions that sometimes surface. 

The key is having a tool that can guide the process and delegating your adult children to take ownership of the easy stuff like phone call lists and funeral activities.  (The more difficult issues, typically money, second homes, and heirlooms are covered in the workbook, but are not in the easy sections.) 

A recently published business succession checklist, The Sudden Death Checklist, by Jack Veale can be helpful in the management of these discussion. It is a succession guide that delineates a step-by-step process for succession planning and includes roles for trusted advisors and adult children.

When Adult Children Doubt the Business Succession Planning Process

This is one area where having a written schedule of succession planning tasks is invaluable to you. By using an unbiased written guide, your close advisors can help your children stay on track with the planning process. Most often, adult children become dubious about the business succession planning process when they feel that the process is biased, their voices are not being heard, or that their best interests are being sidelined in the conversation.

However, by moving the conversation from the emotionally-charged conversation around the kitchen table to the offices of close advisors (such as accountants, lawyers, and religious leaders) the conversation can be more clinical. Planning can then be directed toward solving potential estate challenges instead of being focused on emotion.   

View the succession checklist (The Sudden Death Checklist) developed by Jack Veale.   If you have questions about the checklist or need help with your business succession, feel free to call 860-232-9858.

Back to topbutton