HBO's Succession ran four seasons on a founder who would not pick a successor. Real family businesses fail the same way more quietly: emotional ties, sibling rivalry, loyalty over competence, a founder who steps back in name only, and no timetable until a health scare. None of that is a legal problem, and none of it is solved by a document alone. It is solved by separating ownership from management, choosing successors on qualifications, training them years ahead and putting the hardest conversations in a family council rather than the kitchen.
The legal layer then makes the outcome stick. Buy-sell agreements fix what happens on death, disability or divorce, and after the Supreme Court's 2024 Connelly decision, insurance held by the company to fund a redemption increases the company's value for estate tax, so agreements drafted before then should be reviewed. Gifts and sales of nonvoting interests to trusts move growth out of the founder's estate while the founder keeps control, trusts keep the shares from being split among grandchildren, and section 6166 lets a qualifying estate pay the tax on the business over fourteen years. A succession plan does not require the founder to retire. It requires the founder to decide, in writing, what happens if he does not get to.
The full piece is at turnipseed.law.
