Business Succession Planning in Huntington, NY
Over 30 Years of Estate Law, Now Protecting What You’ve Built
Owning a business adds a layer of complexity to your estate plan that a standard will or trust alone doesn’t address. At Novick, Graffeo & Choi, P.C., we help Huntington, NY business owners decide who can take over ownership or management of their business when they retire, become disabled, or die. That planning work builds directly on the wills, trusts, and powers of attorney our firm has handled for New York families for over 30 years.
Huntington business owners can schedule a free consultation with our team by calling (631) 547-0300. We can review your current estate plan and discuss what a succession plan needs to address.
What Happens Without a Succession Plan
When a business depends heavily on its founder, an unplanned departure can halt operations quickly. Retirement, a sudden disability, or death can leave employees, customers, and partners without clear direction on who is authorized to make decisions or sign contracts.
Disputes among family members, co-owners, or key employees about who takes control are common when no plan exists. These disagreements take time to resolve, and during that delay, a business can lose customers, key staff, and significant value. A clear succession plan can remove ambiguity before a crisis forces the question.
Connecting Your Business Interests to Your Estate Plan
A business ownership interest that isn’t addressed in your estate plan can become tied up in probate proceedings, stalling the transfer of control to whoever you intend to take over. The Suffolk County Surrogate’s Court, which handles probate, estate administration, and guardianship matters throughout Suffolk County, including Huntington, can become involved when a business interest passes through an estate without clear instructions.
Coordinating a succession plan with your personal estate plan means deciding how your business interest will be titled, managed, or transferred if you can no longer run the business. Our firm handles wills, revocable trusts, and powers of attorney, each of which can play a role in that structure. A power of attorney, for example, can authorize a trusted person to manage your business during a period of incapacity without requiring court intervention.
When Succession Disputes Become Litigation
Even a well-drafted succession plan can be challenged. When disputes arise, our firm handles the full range of contested matters that can follow a poorly planned or contested business transition.
Types of Disputes We Handle
A family member or partner given authority through a power of attorney may act outside the scope of what the owner intended, giving rise to a contested power of attorney proceeding. Where a fiduciary manages business assets or a closely held business interest on behalf of an estate, breach of fiduciary duty claims can follow if that authority is abused.
Business-owned real estate creates additional exposure. Heirs who disagree about jointly owned property can end up in a real estate partition action after the owner’s death. A surviving spouse’s right of election under New York law may also affect what share of a business interest passes to a successor rather than the spouse.
We handle all of these litigation matters. For qualifying disputes, we offer contingency fee arrangements so that contested estate and succession matters may not require clients to pay legal fees upfront.
Why Huntington Business Owners Work with Our Firm
Our firm has more than 30 years of experience in estate planning and estate litigation throughout New York. That combination matters for succession planning: the attorneys who draft your succession documents understand how those documents get challenged, and they can structure them accordingly.
Founding partner Donald Novick has been called on as a commentator on estate litigation matters by national outlets including the New York Times, CNN, Newsday, MSNBC, and Fox News Channel. As a boutique practice, we provide the kind of individualized attention that gets lost at larger firms. Each succession plan we prepare reflects the specific structure, relationships, and goals of that business owner.
Schedule Your Free Succession Planning Consultation
If you own a business in the Huntington area and haven’t addressed what happens to it in your estate plan, now is the right time to start. A succession plan built alongside your will, trust, and powers of attorney can give your business a clear path forward and reduce the risk of a costly dispute later.
Call us today at (631) 547-0300 to schedule a free consultation. We can walk through your current plan, identify what’s missing, and help you understand your options.
