A buy/sell agreement anticipates a time when a business owner wants or needs to leave the business. Perhaps an owner becomes unable to work, divorces or just wants to leave the company. The buy/sell agreement allows the remaining business owners to buy their partner’s stock or interest under certain circumstances.
There is a good reason to enter into a buy/sell. These agreements help maintain the viability of the business by insulating it from the major events affecting the owner’s lives while providing for a mechanism for the owners, their estates, or spouses to be compensated for their interest in the company. Without buy/sell agreements owners can be faced with disputes and sometimes protracted litigation over a departing owner or the sudden assertion of ownership rights by a former spouse or estate administrator. Such situations can be very costly and frequently result in the liquidation of the business as a going concern.
Dworken & Bernstein’s attorneys are adept at crafting buy/sell agreements. Our attorneys work within the owners existing estate planning vehicles and may incorporate insurance products to finance a transaction under the buy/sell agreement.
Any company owned by more than one person should have a contingency plan in place including a buy/sell agreement. Reach out to any of the attorneys in our group to start this important conversation.
