When’s the right time to step back? That’s a difficult question to answer to be honest. Getting the timing right for both you and your business can be challenging. One thing we do know is that many people unfortunately leave it too late.

Sussing out your capable hands

When you’re planning your retirement, it’s tempting to look no further than your managers. Any successful business needs strong leadership. It needs business leaders who are passionate, visionary and strive for greatness.  

Have we just described your managers? If so, that’s great. The next step is to develop a succession plan to transfer your knowledge, hone their leadership skills and re-organise your affairs so that it’s done as tax efficiently as possible.

If not, then you might need to look outwards for some fresh blood. Here you’ll need an onboarding plan - one which works for you, your managers and the new leadership team. To do this well takes time, so let’s talk sooner rather than later.

Tax and succession

Good tax planning is key. If it’s structured badly, your succession plan will cost you and your successors dearly. Our tax team has many years of experience dealing with succession, and will give you advice on the below and plenty more:

• how to minimise your capital gains tax
• how to protect your hard-earned nest egg
• how to incentivise and reward the new leaders
• how to restructure your business to reduce risk.