Business Succession Planning
The business you've built should outlast the decisions you're avoiding right now.
We help you plan the handover, whether that’s to family, a partner, or the next generation, before it becomes urgent. A succession plan built under pressure is a worse plan than one built with time on your side, and the businesses that handle this well are the ones that started long before anyone was forced to.
Business Succession Plan
A real succession plan covers more than who takes over. It covers how the handover actually works.
A real succession plan covers more than who takes over. It covers how the handover actually works.
Clear Roles & Responsibilities
Everyone involved, family or not, knows exactly what they’re responsible for during and after the transition, so authority isn’t assumed or contested.
A Realistic Timeline
Not a vague someday. A timeline with actual milestones, so the transition happens deliberately instead of being triggered by an emergency.
Governance That Works Day-to-Day
Decision rights, reporting lines, and how disagreements get resolved, set out before they’re needed, not worked out in the middle of a dispute.
Financial Clarity on the Transition
What the transition actually costs, how it’s funded, and what it means for everyone’s tax position, understood upfront rather than discovered after the fact.
Succession Planning For Business Owners
A successor can only take over a business that's actually ready to be handed over.
Systems
If the business only runs because you know where everything is, it isn’t ready to hand over. We help you document what needs to be documented so the business runs on process, not memory.
Team
A successor needs a team that can actually deliver without you standing over every decision. We help build the delegation and accountability that make that possible.
Reporting
Whoever takes over needs to trust the numbers they’re inheriting. Clean, reliable reporting is what lets a successor step in with confidence instead of guesswork.
Corporate Succession Planning
Succession isn't just a family business problem. Any company with more than one owner has the same exposure.
Corporate and company succession planning covers what happens when an owner or director leaves a multi-owner business, whether that’s through retirement, disagreement, illness, or death. One of the most overlooked pieces here is a properly drafted buy-sell agreement: a document setting out what happens if an owner wants out, becomes unable to work, or passes away, so the remaining owners aren’t left negotiating those terms for the first time under pressure. Funding that kind of arrangement sometimes involves insurance, which is worth raising with your insurance adviser as part of the broader plan, though that’s a conversation for a licensed adviser to walk you through directly, not something we advise on ourselves. If succession is just one piece of a bigger picture for the business, it’s worth seeing the full range of services we offer alongside it.
Business Succession Planning Adelaide
You don't need a template from a Sydney firm. You need someone who understands how South Australian family and business succession actually plays out.
Based in Adelaide, we work with business owners across South Australia on succession, from CBD professional services firms to trades and civil businesses, and family enterprises where the business and the family are genuinely intertwined. If the handover involves a farm or agricultural land alongside the business itself, that carries its own set of considerations around multi-generational ownership, land, and structure, which is exactly what our farm succession planning work is built around specifically.
Succession Planning For Business Owners
A successor can only take over a business that's actually ready to be handed over.
A successor can only take over a business that’s actually ready to be handed over.
Systems
Not reliant on what's in your head
Team
Capable of running without you in the room
Reporting
Clear enough for a successor to trust
Systems
If the business only runs because you know where everything is, it isn’t ready to hand over. We help you document what needs to be documented so the business runs on process, not memory.
Team
A successor needs a team that can actually deliver without you standing over every decision. We help build the delegation and accountability that make that possible.
Reporting
Whoever takes over needs to trust the numbers they’re inheriting. Clean, reliable reporting is what lets a successor step in with confidence instead of guesswork.
Andrew Mattner
Founder
Daniel Lalic
Director
Christian Sloniec
Director
Your Advisors
Meet Your Adelaide Business Advisors
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the first step in succession planning?
A straight conversation about where things stand today: who's involved, what the timeline looks like, and what you actually want the outcome to be. From there we map out what needs to happen and in what order.
How long does a succession plan take?
It depends on the complexity of the business and the family situation, but most succession plans are built over months, not weeks, and the transition itself often plays out over several years. Rushing it tends to cost more than it saves.
What's a buy-sell agreement, and do we need one?
A buy-sell agreement sets out what happens to a business owner's share if they leave, become unable to work, or die, so the remaining owners aren't negotiating those terms for the first time during an already difficult moment. If your business has more than one owner and this hasn't been documented, it's worth addressing directly rather than assuming it'll sort itself out later.
Can you help with farm succession specifically?
Yes, though it's different enough from a standard business succession that we treat it as its own area of work, covering land, multi-generational ownership, and trust structures specifically for agribusiness.
How do we manage family dynamics?
Carefully, and usually by getting the practical decisions, roles, timelines, and financial clarity, settled first. A lot of family tension around succession comes from unresolved practical questions rather than personal disagreement, so addressing those directly tends to ease the rest.
Take the Next Step
Get Started With Our Succession Planning Team
The best time to plan a succession is well before you need one. Let’s start the conversation now, while you still have the luxury of time.