Succession planning

Codex Advokater has extensive experience in providing legal services to small, medium-sized and large companies about all aspects in connection with the completion of a succession process. Our objective is to give a holistic advice on the entire process including both planning and preparation as well as the practical completion of the succession process.

The process will often extend over a long period, and it is our experience that a well-accomplished succession implies that we work on the considerations in terms of both family, business and tax. Generally, it is not possible to select the right time of a succession in advance, and when it comes to all, the optimum time for a succession may be the result of a combination of a number of preconditions, including e.g. finances, age, requests for pension, safeguarding of future operations potential etc. Accordingly, the older generation as well as the younger generation must be ready for the succession process, and perhaps it should be considered involving one or more executives in the succession as well.

A succession is a process which legally involves many areas from company law through family law and law of inheritance to tax law etc. In Codex Advokater we work as a team to ensure that the assignments are carried out by the employees with the right expertise. Moreover, we have a close co-operation with a number of accountants, banks, mortgage providers and other consultants on whom we can draw, if necessary and if it will be of benefit to the planned process.

Planning a succession often requires the appointment of a professional board of directors which will take part in ensuring that the company can be detached from the founder(s) or from the passionate people who have been the mainstay behind the company. Codex Advokater has a broad network, and we would like to help find the right manpower for the board of directors of the company.

If an approaching succession is planned in time, a good plan may help ensure that the consequences in terms of tax and duties can be postponed or reduced. Especially, if the succession is to be completed in the family bad planning of the succession may result in a claim for payment of a substantial amount of tax and duties, which maybe could have been avoided, and which, at worst, will threaten the existence of the company because of an increased demand for cash flow.

Moreover, Codex Advokater is very experienced in giving advice in connection with transfers of business if the succession requires sale to an external buyer. We have experience in providing legal services to sellers as well as to buyers, so saying we are well-equipped to ensuring that the transfer proceeds in the best possible way.