Imagine there is a bomb buried in your front yard. It isn’t large enough to kill you, your wife, or another member of your family, but it would certainly injure whoever steps on it. It is very well-hidden, so there is a chance it will never be triggered. Would you take that chance? Or would you bring in a bomb squad and dig up the entire yard to get rid of it?
There my not be an actual bomb in your yard, but if you own a closely held or family businesses, you almost certainly have one lurking within the words on the pages of your buy-sell agreement. If you haven’t done anything to fix it, you have placed yourself, your families, and your company in real danger.
Buy-sell agreements are among the most common yet least understood business agreements. They govern how ownership will change hands if and when something significant, often called a trigger event, happens to one or more of the owners. These agreements are intended to ensure the remaining owners control the outcome during critical transitions. They specify what happens to the ownership interest of a fellow owner who dies or otherwise departs the business, and mandate that a departing owner be paid reasonably for his or her interest in the business. Every successful closely held or family-owned business with two or more owners has a buy-sell agreement – and if it doesn’t, it should.
Mercer Capital's focus on buy-sell agreements results from Mercer Capital's experience over twenty years valuing buy-sell agreements. As such, we've seen well-crafted agreements as well as agreements that were lacking in terms of clarity of information necessary for a business appraiser.
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Buy-Sell Agreements for Closely Held and Family Business Owners
This book, Buy-Sell Agreements for Closely Held and Family Business Owners, is written for all business owners who have or will have buy-sell agreements for their companies. Chris Mercer has seen enough explosions following the triggering of buy-sell agreements to know that badly crafted agreements can be disastrous for all involved. However, he believes you can know in advance your buy-sell agreement will work – and it doesn’t have to be triggered to find out. This book explains how.
The Buy-Sell Audit Checklist
The Buy-Sell Agreement Audit Checklist is a 40-page document that provides an audit tool that addresses the many obvious, yet overlooked, valuation issues related to buy-sell agreements. The Buy-Sell Agreement Audit Checklist is an ideal companion to Buy-Sell Agreements for Closely Held and Family Business Owners.
BUY-SELL AGREEMENTS ONLINE
Mercer Capital created a dedicated site on the topic of buy-sell agreements. Our goal in creating this website is providing information to strengthen buy-sell agreements from business and business valuation perspectives. We hopefully accomplish this by providing readers with information, from a business valuation perspective, to enhance, improve, and help ensure that their buy-sell agreements (or those of their clients) provide reasonable and workable solutions when they are triggered.
Visit the website at www.buysellagreementsonline.com
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SAMPLE PRESENTATION
The professionals of Mercer Capital welcome the opportunity to speak about buy-sell agreements to groups of business owners, financial planners, attorneys, accountants, and business appraisers to share experiences that can help others. Increasingly, accountants, wealth management professionals, financial service firms, industry associations, and family offices are organizing opportunities to bring messages about buy-sell agreements to business owners. We can also provide the content in webinar format in the event that your group is scattered or if you are between normally scheduled meetings or conferences.
If you own a business or advise business owners and want to learn more about booking one of our professionals to speak to your group, contact Barbara Walters Price (priceb@mercercapital.com) or at 901.685.2120.
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