Event: Chamber Webinar – Succession Planning for Owner-Managed Businesses – Planning Ahead is Key

For owner-managed businesses, smart succession planning can be the key to securing the future of the company and ensuring its success after the owner(s) retire. According to a 2018 survey, 58% of UK SMEs do not have a succession plan in place. They require careful planning which can take time away from a business owner’s busy schedule. However, by planning ahead, you can save time and money in the long run and ensure you are well prepared for an unexpected exit.

During this webinar, a series of experts from Howes Percival, MHA Larking Gowen and Brewin Dolphin will discuss what you need to consider from a legal, financial and practical point of view when it comes to succession planning.

Content:

Legal considerations

Corporate law expert and partner at Howes Percival, Oliver Pritchard discusses what business owners need to consider from a legal stance, including:

• Pros and cons of the main Exit options
• Structuring a sale to family / existing management team
• Funding a sale to family / existing management team

How to grow the value of your business

Jack Minns, Corporate Finance Director at MHA Larking Gowen will discuss high level valuation principles but focus on the valuation drivers that can be leveraged to grow the value of your business

• The three-stage strategic assessment process
• How much is my business worth and what are the value drivers?
• How can I increase value & prepare for exit?

Preparing for succession

Howes Percival’s Head of Tax, Stuart Maggs, has been involved in succession arrangement both within a family and with existing management, and will share some experience in areas where it has worked well, and also poorly, including:

• Bringing in the next generation – maintaining control vs passing it over
• Splitting the business and treating children fairly
• Family constitutions – taking the emotion out of the boardroom

Rehearsing the future

While corporate finance often drives the valuation of a business, Ainsley Bower, Chartered Financial Planner and Divisional Director at Brewin Dolphin, believes that many owners don’t know the answer to the question of “how much is enough and will it always be enough?”  By investing time in planning, we can provide greater clarity on when owners can confidently step away from their business. The aim of the planning is to help you work out:

• what your dream life looks like;
• how much that dream life costs;
• when you can live that dream life, and
• ultimately, if that dream life is already within your grasp.  If not, the strategy needed to get you there.

About the presenters

Oliver Pritchard, Partner, Howes Percival

Oliver is a senior corporate partner with a wealth of experience in leading teams of lawyers on corporate transactions and other large scale projects within the public and private sectors. He has advised business owners, management teams, buyers, investors and funders on a range of company sales and purchases and is recognised as a leading lawyer nationally in the Legal 500 (2020 edition)

Stuart Maggs, Head of Tax, Howes Percival

Stuart has spent many years advising his clients on how best to arrange their affairs to keep them simple and understandable, while meeting their requirements and minimising tax implications. This includes strategic advice for families and trusts on their business and personal matters, including preparing wills, estate planning (onshore and offshore), trusts, powers of attorney. He works closely with the property and corporate teams on aspects of business and family succession for corporate and property structures, negotiating with HMRC where required. He regularly presents seminars and workshops on topical tax issues and is a committee member of East Anglia’s Chartered Institute of Taxation. Chambers & Partners note “the quality of his work is exemplary.”

Jack Minns, Corporate Finance Director, MHA Larking Gowen

Jack joined MHA Larking Gowen in 2013 from a national accountancy firm where he worked as a senior business advisor and qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 2011.

He has gained significant experience on a number of corporate finance transactions including business sales, acquisitions and management-buy-outs (“MBO’s”) with deal values typically ranging between £500k and £20m. Jack is also heavily involved in company and group re-organisations and assists clients with stand along valuation assignments for tax or transaction related purposes. In 2017, Jack passed the ICAEW Corporate Finance Qualification with Distinction.

Ainsley Bowyer, Chartered Financial Planner and Divisional Director, Brewin Dolphin

Ainsley joined Brewin Dolphin in January 2020, prior to this he worked for accountancy firm Grant Thornton for many years where he provided advice to wealthy individuals and their families. He is a Chartered Financial Planner and has been in financial services for over 20 years, previously working for private banks and stockbroking firms both locally and in the city. Throughout his career Ainsley has built a broad experience base including complex pension and estate planning, working closely with other professional advisers to put in place coherent strategies for his clients.

About Howes Percival

Howes Percival is a leading commercial law firm and our clients range from individuals and families to global businesses and government departments. We offer a wide range of legal expertise and are constantly investing in new specialisms to ensure that we can offer excellent advice to our clients across all aspects of their business.

We are one of the biggest firms of commercial solicitors in Norfolk and feature heavily in the Legal 500, achieving top rankings in corporate and commercial law, dispute resolution, finance and real estate among others. Our agriculture, rural affairs and private client teams are highly ranked in the Chambers UK guide.

About MHA Larking Gowen

MHA Larking Gowen is one of the UK’s top 40 accountancy firms, perfectly placed to advise local businesses. We see ourselves as more than purely chartered accountants. We’ll look after all your tax and finance issues, and we’ll be trusted business advisors with a friendly one-to-one service you can count on. Whatever you do, whether you’re a large organisation or an individual, MHA Larking Gowen can help you. We offer a full range of sector coverage and specialist teams in corporate finance, business strategy, VAT, business recovery and private client services, and being a member of MHA, a UK wide association of business advisers, means we have access to the knowledge and expertise from across 49 offices providing national access to local insight.

About Brewin Dolphin

Brewin Dolphin are one of the UK’s leading wealth managers. Here to help you achieve your ambitions through expert, personalised financial planning and investment management advice. We place great emphasis on our relationships with our clients and believe in a personal approach to wealth management. Having been around for more than 250 years, our business has seen the ebbs and flows of the markets. It has taught us how to manage our clients’ interests during those times and to focus on the long term.

Please remember – The value of investments and any income from them can fall and you may get back less than you invested. Also, no investment is suitable in all cases and if you have any doubts as to an investment’s suitability then you should contact us.