As a business owner, you've mastered using your assets to grow your enterprise and provide for your family—funding expansion, making strategic investments, and ensuring quality of life. But have you given equal thought to how these assets, particularly your business, will support the people you care about after you're gone?

Even successful business owners who have taken initial steps in estate planning often find their plans need updating, especially given how quickly businesses evolve and tax laws change. A business valued at $5 million just a few years ago might be worth $20 million today—potentially creating millions in unnecessary estate taxes without proper planning. A strategic estate plan can help you save millions in estate taxes while ensuring your business legacy continues.

If this sounds familiar, don't worry. You can get on track by focusing on three main areas of estate planning: wills, trusts and fiduciaries. Each has special significance for business owners and offers unique opportunities for tax efficiency.

The all-important Business Owners will

A will should be the basic foundation of every estate plan—the starting point for a well-conceived strategy to transfer both personal and business assets at death.

A will identifies precisely what you want to have happen to your assets and estate, including your business interests. Dying without a will means leaving your business's future

to state laws, potentially forcing a sale or creating leadership gaps at a critical time. Having no will, also can make the settling of your estate difficult, costly and highly publicized—issues that could impact your business's stability and value.

We strongly believe the benefits of writing a will far outweigh the drawbacks, especially for business owners seeking to maximize tax savings and protect their wealth.

Advantages:

- You decide how your business interests and other assets will be distributed

- Estate taxes may be mitigated—especially crucial for business owners whose wealth is often tied to their company

- You specify who the fiduciaries will be, including those who understand your business

Trusts

A typical second component of a smart estate plan is a trust. For business owners, trusts can be particularly powerful tools. They let you transfer title of your assets—including business interests—to trustees for the benefit of your selected beneficiaries, such as family members. The trustee will carry out your wishes on behalf of those beneficiaries while ensuring business continuity.

Trusts can be especially useful for business owners in transferring wealth, minimizing estate taxes, and protecting business assets. With proper structuring, trusts can help you transfer business interests to the next generation at significant tax savings while maintaining control. They can also help create smooth succession plans and maintain business stability during transitions.

Broadly speaking, there are two types of trusts: living (established while you are alive) and testamentary (created by your will after you've passed). Additionally, there are two fundamental trust structures:

- A revocable trust allows you to retain full control over the assets in the trust, including business interests. You can add or take out assets as well as change the terms of the trust.

- An irrevocable trust is one to which you cannot make changes, often used for tax planning or asset protection strategies.

Business owners can consider the use of strategies such as Operating Trust and Family Limited Partnerships [FLPs] allowing for business succession and transfer your company to next generation while maintaining oversight, providing operational continuity and professional management.

Selecting the Right Help

The third pillar is fiduciaries. For business owners, choosing the right people to execute your plan is particularly crucial as they need to understand both family and business dynamics.

Regarding your will, you need to name an executor who understands your business operations. When it comes to trusts, someone (or some institution) has to be the trustee who can manage both personal and business assets. And if you have children who are minors, you must name guardians—considering not just their care but also their potential future role in the business.

1. Executors and trustees. An executor of your will has significant responsibilities, including:

- Collecting and organizing your assets, including business interests

- Paying business and personal debts

- Acting as a collection agency for money due to you or your business

- Handling all necessary tax matters

- Ensuring that assets are distributed to beneficiaries while maintaining business continuity

When you set up a trust, you are specifying how you want both personal and business situations managed in the future. The trustee's responsibilities may include:

- Ensuring proper tax filings for both personal and business matters

- Making investment decisions, including business operations oversight

- Working with beneficiaries and business stakeholders

2. Guardians. There are three key criteria to consider, with added complexity for business owners:

- Will the guardian(s) love your children?

- Are they capable of raising your children while potentially preparing them for future business involvement?

- Will they instill the values and work ethic that have made your business successful?

Time for a Tax-Saving Update?

For business owners, regular estate plan reviews are especially crucial. Business valuations change, tax laws evolve, and new planning opportunities arise. A business that was worth $5 million a few years ago might be worth $20 million today—potentially creating millions in unnecessary estate taxes without proper planning. We recommend reviewing your estate plan every year or two.

The review should be conducted by a wealth manager or tax professional who has both estate planning and business expertise in conjunction with your estate attorney. At Benzer Capital, we take time to understand your family dynamics, business goals, and tax situation, identifying opportunities to minimize estate taxes while maximizing the wealth transferred to your family. We bring together the necessary experts to assist you in executing the plan.

It's this combination of technical expertise in estate planning, tax strategy, and real-world business experience that leads to the most effective estate plans—ones that protect both your family's future and your business legacy while minimizing estate taxes. Our clients often save estate, income and capital gains taxes through strategic planning and regular updates to their estate plans. Visit www.benzercapital.com to schedule a time to have a conversation and set up a review.