Key Takeaways
- Continuity is a Tuesday problem: access, signatures, payroll, and decisions cannot wait for probate.
- The fix is one afternoon: a continuity memo naming interim authority, plus legal and banking plumbing that lets it work.
- Insurance buys time; documents grant permission; the memo tells everyone what to actually do.
Estate plans move ownership in months; businesses die in weeks. If the owner of an owner-operated company dies on Tuesday, payroll still runs Friday, a client deliverable is due Monday, and the bank account may already be frozen pending letters no court has issued. Continuity planning is the bridge across that gap, and for most small businesses it fits in one honest afternoon of work that almost nobody has done.
The Tuesday Test
Walk the first two weeks concretely. Who can access the bank accounts, and will the bank recognize them? Who runs payroll, and do they hold the credentials? Who signs contracts and checks? Who can even get into the email, the accounting system, the customer list? For a sole owner, the legal answer is often "nobody until probate," which is how solvent businesses miss payroll. The test surfaces the plumbing to fix: authorized signers added at the bank, a durable power of attorney that covers business interests for incapacity, credentials in a sealed and updated vault, and, in the operating agreement or bylaws, named interim authority.
The Continuity Memo
One document, kept with the estate papers and known to your spouse, attorney, and a key employee: who takes interim operational charge and what authority they hold; the instruction to the family (commonly: do not sell in grief, here is who advises); key contacts, attorney, CPA, banker, top clients, critical vendors, landlord; where the passwords, contracts, and insurance policies live; and the owner's honest strategic guidance, is this business sellable, closeable, or runnable, and by whom? That last paragraph is the kindest thing an owner can write; families otherwise learn the answer from strangers, expensively.
Try it: the free Net Worth Calculator takes a couple of minutes and shows you where you stand. Or explore For Business Owners at Attend.
Money That Buys Time
Continuity runs on cash while revenue wobbles: key person life insurance payable to the company funds months of payroll and a professional interim manager; adequate company cash reserves do the same for smaller shocks; and personal term coverage keeps the family's household solvent so the business is not forced into a fire sale to fund groceries, the sizing logic in our life insurance guide. Multi-owner firms layer this under the buy-sell agreement, which handles the ownership question the memo does not.
Making It Durable
Calendar an annual thirty-minute review: signers current, credentials fresh, memo names still right, insurance still sized to payroll. Tell the people in the plan that they are in it, an unread continuity plan is a scavenger hunt. And coordinate the memo with the estate documents so authority and ownership do not point different directions: the trust may own the company while the memo's manager runs it, which works only if both documents expect it. We build this coordination in estate and legacy planning for owner clients; it is the least glamorous work we do and among the most valuable.
Frequently Asked Questions
I'm a single-member LLC. Who can act if I die?
By default, often no one until the estate is administered, the operating agreement can name a successor manager or springing authority, and the bank needs its own paperwork honored. Fix both before they are tested.
What does key person insurance for continuity cost?
Term coverage on a healthy owner is inexpensive relative to payroll: sizing six to twelve months of operating costs is a common starting point. The quote takes an afternoon.
Should my spouse inherit and run the business?
Only if they want to and can, and they deserve your honest written answer now. Many memos direct an orderly sale or wind-down instead, which is a legitimate, loving plan.
Tony leads Attend Wealth, a fee-based wealth management firm in Atlanta serving professionals, families, and business owners. Advisory services are held to a fiduciary standard. More about Attend
Talk It Through with a Fiduciary Advisor.
A complimentary conversation about your situation. Ask whatever is on your mind, walk away with a straight answer, and keep the notes either way.
Book Your Complimentary Consult