don’t have a word for entrepreneur’. So
much for levity. The entrepreneur,
especially when he is setting up his or her business has several things to
contend with – the list is almost endless and depending on how well organised
one is Parkinson’s law would assert itself as almost inevitable. The thought of
inheritance or more coldly and cruelly death is generally far from one’s
thoughts at a time of optimism and general excitement.
Britain, anecdotally and statistically is a land of the entrepreneur
– it would be an act of profound unkindness to bore you with the figures,
ratios and proportions so I shall contain
that natural tendency to play the part of the anorak.
However, we must remind ourselves of people who would not normally
consider themselves needing of making arrangements for their inheritance because
they would feel they were of modest wealth or worse that they were not in
business.
One of my very first clients, over 2 decades ago had been
left an inheritance by a great aunt who had been a member of the Bloomsbury Set
– in 2010 values, this client of mine gets between ten and twenty thousand
pounds per annum from the rights to one book – just by way of diversion, my
client was born after her forebear had died.
Writing a last will and testament is not one of the first
things that comes to mind for someone who is going about the tasks involved in
setting up and running his or her business.
The unspoken though of the business person building wealth 0r a wealth
producing asset to be enjoyed in years to come – there’s the catch - years to
come. The very randomness of life
implies some folk would die during their working lives a certain inherent short
sightedness is built into the make up of the entrepreneur. From earlier in this write up, it is apparent
that there is a class of people who would generally fail to recognise
themselves as business folk who need to have an up to date last will and
testament. These are artistic or
creative types – after all the income would roll in for at least seventy years
after the death of the artist – and with a bit of lightness of foot, it could
the generated for a few decades longer. This a niche that enjoys the benefit of
residual income. This is exemplified my experience of having several clients
who were minor pop stars in the 1960s and 1970s, their modest but recurring
royalties would hardly enable them to live the life of Riley, but they have as
a rule been able to set aside the funds to pay for private education for their
children, grand children, and in a couple of cases, great grand children.
The income lives on, long after the death of the business
man – this in truth is the unarticulated sentiment of most people when they
enter into business, its like a sort of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs – satisfy the
basic needs of feeding one’s self and family, and then go on to fulfil higher
status needs such as building a ‘legacy’.
Estate planning – at the bare minimum writing a last will
and testament provides the business – and its owners the chance to resolve the
question of the passage of the ownership
of the enterprise on the demise of its current owners - which would happen in the fullness of time.
It creates peace of mind for the employees and helps attract a higher calibre
of staff – the question of proprietorship hence the inheritance, if not management
would at least be resolved by drawing up and keeping up to date the last will
and testament of the firm’s owners.
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