Estate Planning
Advanced Planning
Depending on your personal situation, you may have the need for more advanced estate planning.
Business Succession Planning
Whether you own a Sole Proprietorship, an LLC, or a Corporation, it's vital to understand the proper way to pass on the legacy you've created. A business is often a family's largest asset, but it's also the one most families forget to plan for.
Only 23% of business owners have a formal, documented succession plan.
That means the vast majority of business owners have built something valuable without ever answering the one question that matters most: what happens to it if they're suddenly gone?
Who Runs Your Business Tomorrow?
If you were unexpectedly gone — or simply incapacitated after a health emergency — who would walk into your business tomorrow morning and legally have the authority to run it? For most business owners, the honest answer is "no one knows." A few questions worth sitting with:
- Does your spouse have the legal authority to sign checks, approve payroll, or make decisions on behalf of the business — or just access to the marital assets?
- Does your key employee or manager have any legal authority at all, or only the practical knowledge of how things run?
- If ownership is unclear or tied up in probate, can the business even continue operating — payroll, vendor contracts, licenses, and bank accounts included?
- Would a forced sale, a court-supervised transfer, or a dispute among heirs and partners reduce what the business is actually worth?
These aren't hypothetical questions. They're the exact questions a probate court, a bank, or a business partner will ask if you haven't answered them in writing ahead of time.
What Happens Without a Succession Plan
Without a business succession plan integrated into your estate plan, your business doesn't just lose you — it can lose its value, its momentum, and sometimes its ability to operate at all while ownership is sorted out in court.
- Bank accounts and lines of credit can be frozen until a court determines who has authority over the business
- Employees, vendors, and clients are left without clear direction and often leave for more stable competitors
- Family members or partners may disagree about whether to keep, sell, or wind down the business — often in probate court, in public
- A business that depended on you personally can lose much of its value in the months it takes to sort out who's in charge
- Co-owners without a buy-sell agreement can end up in business with your spouse or heirs, whether they want to be or not
What a Business Succession Plan Can Include
At ArchAngel Trust and Probate Services, our experienced team works with business owners to build a plan that keeps the business running and protects its value, no matter what happens to you. Depending on your structure — Sole Proprietorship, LLC, or Corporation — that can include:
- A named successor or interim manager with clear, documented legal authority to step in immediately
- A buy-sell agreement that spells out how a partner's or owner's share is valued and transferred if they die, become incapacitated, or leave
- Powers of attorney and trust provisions that specifically address business assets, not just personal ones
- Passing your business to your loved ones without probate
- Minimizing tax liability when selling or passing the business
- A coordinated plan with your CPA and financial advisor so the legal, financial, and tax pieces work together
Protect What You've Built
You've spent years building your business. A single afternoon with our team can make sure that work doesn't unravel the moment you're not there to run it yourself. Call ArchAngel Trust and Probate Services to talk through a succession plan built around how your business actually operates.
High Net Worth Family Planning
Larger estates come with planning questions that a basic living trust doesn't fully answer. Once significant assets, multiple properties, investment accounts, or a family business are involved, the goal shifts from simply avoiding probate to protecting what you've built for the long term — from estate taxes, from creditors, and from the disputes that can arise when there's more at stake.
At ArchAngel Trust and Probate Services, we work with high net worth families to build a plan that addresses the full picture: minimizing tax exposure, protecting assets across generations, and keeping wealth working for the family instead of being lost to unnecessary taxes, fees, or conflict.
What High Net Worth Family Planning Can Include
Depending on the size and makeup of your estate, a plan built for a high net worth family can include:
- Advanced trust structures designed to reduce estate and gift tax exposure
- Irrevocable life insurance trusts (ILITs) to keep policy proceeds outside your taxable estate
- Generation-skipping and dynasty trust planning for multi-generational wealth transfer
- Family limited partnerships or LLCs to centralize management of family assets and investments
- Asset protection planning to shield wealth from future creditors or legal claims
- Charitable giving and philanthropic legacy strategies, including charitable trusts and foundations
- Coordinated planning for multiple properties, business interests, and investment accounts held across entities
- Guidance on prenuptial or postnuptial agreements to protect family assets for future generations
- Close coordination with your CPA, financial advisor, and investment team so your legal, tax, and financial plans work together
Begin with a conversation.
A consultation to understand your family, answer your questions, and decide together what your plan should protect.