Three succession decisions

Value, vote and management do not have to transfer together

Business succession becomes manageable when economic benefit, shareholder voting and day-to-day management are considered separately.

Insight077 minutes

Working principle

The management successor does not have to be the only recipient of value.
01

Three functions create different questions

Value asks who receives the economic benefit. Vote determines who exercises shareholder rights. Management identifies who represents the BV, leads the team and makes operational decisions.

When one DGA holds all three functions, the system appears simple. After an event, they may pass to different people, at different times and through different documents.

02

Liquidity connects the business and the family

Non-working children may need an economic position without a management role. Equalisation cannot be promised without a valuation, cash-flow analysis and funding source. A forced sale may destroy the very value the family wanted to preserve.

The DGA Succession Control Map comes first. Corporate, valuation and tax specialists then confirm the implementation stack and any potential BOR/DSR routes.

Signals

Review this if you recognise your system

  • all shares pass equally without decision design
  • a successor is named but neither appointed nor accepted by the team
  • family liquidity depends on immediate extraction of funds from the business

Next actions

Three steps before choosing a document

  1. 01separate value, vote and management
  2. 02overlay three events and three time horizons
  3. 03assign valuation and liquidity workstreams

Apply

DGA succession matrix

An Event × Horizon agenda for corporate, valuation, liquidity and tax workstreams.

Open tool

Go deeper

DGA and business succession control

The scenario map separates the family’s economic outcome from shareholder voting, the director role and operational continuity.

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