Great article!

The statistics on the wealth transfer that will occur in the next 10-15 years are overwhelming.

Despite all of the education in the area, many business owners still do not understand all of the varied options they have to exit their businesses. Most owners that we talk to about how they will exit their businesses respond “feet first, head up” or hope they wil be able to sell it to a competitor or a larger company. Most do not know that their exit options include:

Selling it to employees (ESOP, MBO, phantom stock, etc.),
Gifting it to family members (outright gift, GRAT, FLPs),
Selling to co-owners (buy-sell),
Gifting it to charity (Community Foundations, CLT, CRT),
Selling it to a third party (M&A),
Going public, or
Liquidating underlying assets and closing business.

Which option the business owner ultimately chooses depend on a number of factors – the most important thing is that business owners understand their options and have the necessary information to make an informed decision regarding their exit.

For many of these companies, an ESOP should be given serious consideration in this decision given the advantage they have over most of the other exit options.