Ownership transition planning isn’t just about identifying and training your successors. It’s also about ensuring that you get the most value out of your investment. And it’s about determining the best course to secure a prosperous future for your firm and its people.
Why do you need a comprehensive, realistic ownership transition plan?
- To establish and manage an exit strategy that rewards stockholders for their investment in the firm
- To establish a process to allow non-owner employees to become shareholders
- To manage and guard against unexpected events such as a major shareholder leaving the firm or dying
- To ensure that the firm survives beyond its current group of owners
- To attract and keep key employees and future leaders
- To make firm ownership a good investment
Our ownership transition planning suite of services can help you no matter where you are in the process. We can get you started, we can help you identify and shore up your weak spots, or we can guide you through the entire process.
We listen to you, help you understand the best way to proceed, and provide you with the services you need to meet your goals.
Ownership transition “checkup”
Before we can help you design an ownership transition plan, we need to know what your firm’s owners hope to achieve for themselves and for the firm. Is the next tier of leadership and ownership in place? Is selling to an outside buyer an option? When do the current owners expect to leave the firm? A successful ownership transition plan requires that you know the answers to these and many other questions. We deliver our opinion on the status of your ownership transition “fitness” in a written report, then discuss with you the contents of our report, as well as the options available to you.
Valuation services: Benchmark valuation, fairness opinion, executive-level valuation, full valuation
Our experts will recommend and perform the combination of valuation services that best meets your unique needs, ranging from a basic benchmark valuation to our detailed and comprehensive full valuations. Learn more about ZweigWhite's Business Valuation Services.
Financial feasibility analysis
One of the biggest mistakes firms make is setting up ownership transition plans that simply won’t work in the real world. ZweigWhite creates comprehensive financial models for your firm that analyze the impact of stock repurchases and sales under various valuation formulas, as well as repurchase and sale schedules. We deliver this in a brief report that outlines our reasoning and illustrates how your plan will work under the scenarios tested.
Buy/sell agreement review
ZweigWhite reviews your buy/sell agreement and helps you decide if it can accomplish what you want it to. We recommend appropriate business terms for your buy/sell agreement. And we help you design an agreement that reflects the wants and needs of the owners, while furthering the goals of the overall ownership transition plan. We deliver this information in a brief report, then discuss the results with you.
ESOP valuation, financial feasibility, and consulting
ZweigWhite helps you decide if an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) is right for your firm. And if it is, we help you understand the cultural, business, and financial implications of the plan. Or, if you already have an ESOP in place, we serve as your annual business appraiser. For our ESOP-related services, we provide you with a comprehensive business valuation report.
Merger & acquisition assistance
Maybe an external sale, merger, or acquisition is the best course for your firm. We help you decide if your ownership transition plan should include a merger or acquisition element. ZweigWhite has extensive experience assisting A/E/P and environmental consulting firms in selling, buying, or merging. Our firm sale assistance includes a search of potential target firms, as well as advisory services throughout negotiations and due diligence. We also establish value expectations for all parties early on in a proposed deal. We can help you with the process from start to finish, or we can provide spot assistance where you need it.
Management transition planning
Every good ownership transition plan has a leadership transition plan as well. Many firms have a difficult time grooming a second or third tier of management. ZweigWhite helps you identify candidates capable of managing the company, then advises you on the best way to groom these managers for their future role. We deliver this advice in a brief report, then discuss our findings and proposed actions with you.
Existing ownership transition plan review
If you already have an ownership transition plan in place, ZweigWhite looks at your plan and helps you improve it. We have seen hundreds of ownership transition plans, and we know what works and what doesn’t. We can spot a flaw in an ownership transition plan faster and better than anyone. And when an ownership transition plan has room for improvement, we know just what it takes and we’ll tell it to you straight. Once we review your ownership transition plan and your financial position, we provide you with a written report that includes our recommendations for how your plan can be improved. We then discuss our findings and recommendations with you.
CEO and board of directors
Sometimes you just need another opinion. We are your “sounding board.” If you have a question or problem, we’ve probably seen something similar in our years of ownership transition work. In our CEO and board of directors consulting work, we conduct a desk review of your pertinent information, then we meet with the board of directors or officers to discuss value and ownership transition issues at a broad strategic level.
Complete ownership transition plan design and implementation
ZweigWhite uses any combination or all of these services to help you design and implement a comprehensive ownership transition plan. We then stand by you and assist as you implement the plan. We provide you with a complete report outlining the reasoning behind the plan we recommend, and we deliver all the valuation and financial feasibility statistics. We then present our findings to you, advise you, and stay in contact as you bring your plan to fruition. Since any ownership transition plan may need to be “sold” to the group of new owners, we can also help prepare the stock offering “prospectus.”
Valuation & Ownership Planning Services Home
Email a consultant
Contact a consultant via web form
Call 1-800-466-6275
