Resources for dealing with company after death of the owner.
September 9, 2013 7:49 AM Subscribe
My 40-something boss passed away very suddenly on Friday--young enough that while he'd brought up the notion of succession planning, to the best of my knowledge there was no set plan of what happens next. He was the sole owner of the CPA firm that employed me (a staff accountant) and another CPA. The other CPA is meeting with the attorney this morning, I believe, and friends of his are coming in to help us out in whatever way they can. But I'm hoping to find a few more resources for this coming week.
I think the other CPA is overwhelmed, and I mostly want to be useful here in any way I can. I'm still fairly new to the job, but this is the best place I've ever worked, you know? I know we need to be looking for basics like whether there was a life insurance policy, the will, what his wife's wishes are, that kind of thing, but more generally stuff like:
What's the best way to announce this to clients and others?
Especially how do we explain that there may have been information that was in his head that we don't necessarily have access to--i.e., that they may be expecting things that we don't know we need to get for them?
What kind of factors need to be considered when looking at choices like whether to try to merge with another firm, hire another person, or just wind up the firm's affairs?
Just generally how do we stay productive when everybody's upset and overwhelmed?
Not necessarily CPA-specific, generally; I imagine advice for law firms or medical practices or any other kind of small business might have a lot of relevant stuff. I know there have to be articles out there about this sort of thing, but it was a rough weekend and I'm a little brain-dead and I was hoping some less emotional people out there might have an idea where we could look for info.
Thanks so much.
I think the other CPA is overwhelmed, and I mostly want to be useful here in any way I can. I'm still fairly new to the job, but this is the best place I've ever worked, you know? I know we need to be looking for basics like whether there was a life insurance policy, the will, what his wife's wishes are, that kind of thing, but more generally stuff like:
What's the best way to announce this to clients and others?
Especially how do we explain that there may have been information that was in his head that we don't necessarily have access to--i.e., that they may be expecting things that we don't know we need to get for them?
What kind of factors need to be considered when looking at choices like whether to try to merge with another firm, hire another person, or just wind up the firm's affairs?
Just generally how do we stay productive when everybody's upset and overwhelmed?
Not necessarily CPA-specific, generally; I imagine advice for law firms or medical practices or any other kind of small business might have a lot of relevant stuff. I know there have to be articles out there about this sort of thing, but it was a rough weekend and I'm a little brain-dead and I was hoping some less emotional people out there might have an idea where we could look for info.
Thanks so much.
I think you will have to recognize the fact that, depending how the business was set up, his spouse may be considered the key stakeholder here.
Obviously this is not something that she can handle right now, but on the other hand you also have projects in play, with receivables to be collected.
I'm assuming that there were just three people in the company - your deceased employer, the CPA and you. It sounds like the CPA is meeting with an attorney, who can probably help organize things, but at the same time it might be a good idea to take note of all of the various projects that need to be completed.
Your deceased employer's spouse will probably have some incentive to either wrap things up or keep them going, depending on her financial situation. So she's kind of your new boss.
Since she is obviously going to be overwhelmed you may want to try to reach out to a family member, perhaps a sibling, who typically manages affairs in the event of a sudden death.
posted by KokuRyu at 9:09 AM on September 9, 2013
Obviously this is not something that she can handle right now, but on the other hand you also have projects in play, with receivables to be collected.
I'm assuming that there were just three people in the company - your deceased employer, the CPA and you. It sounds like the CPA is meeting with an attorney, who can probably help organize things, but at the same time it might be a good idea to take note of all of the various projects that need to be completed.
Your deceased employer's spouse will probably have some incentive to either wrap things up or keep them going, depending on her financial situation. So she's kind of your new boss.
Since she is obviously going to be overwhelmed you may want to try to reach out to a family member, perhaps a sibling, who typically manages affairs in the event of a sudden death.
posted by KokuRyu at 9:09 AM on September 9, 2013
Presumably, the business has an established relationship with an attorney or law firm. Now would be the time to make that phone call. What happens to the company may depend on how the corporate bylaws are written. The death of a major shareholder is the kind of event that many corporations have a plan for.
But be sure you don't overstep your business authority either. You're a staff accountant. Most staff accountants aren't corporate executives and are not really authorized to take action or make decisions on behalf of the company as a whole. Is there a VP? A board of directors? A COO? Anyone else at all in the C-suite? Because if there is, most of what you're trying to do is probably something that they should do, not you. Feel free to let them know that you're available to help as needed, but you can get yourself--and the company--in trouble by getting involved in things outside your job description.
Ultimately though, a lot of what you're talking about is more properly handled by whatever attorney is retained by the family to handle the deceased's estate. Things like life insurance, the will, the family, those are all not really any of your business. You're an employee. It's great that you want to be helpful, but that assistance shouldn't really go beyond fulfilling your (presumably limited) duties to the company unless you are specifically asked to do more by the family or the estate attorney.
posted by valkyryn at 9:13 AM on September 9, 2013 [2 favorites]
But be sure you don't overstep your business authority either. You're a staff accountant. Most staff accountants aren't corporate executives and are not really authorized to take action or make decisions on behalf of the company as a whole. Is there a VP? A board of directors? A COO? Anyone else at all in the C-suite? Because if there is, most of what you're trying to do is probably something that they should do, not you. Feel free to let them know that you're available to help as needed, but you can get yourself--and the company--in trouble by getting involved in things outside your job description.
Ultimately though, a lot of what you're talking about is more properly handled by whatever attorney is retained by the family to handle the deceased's estate. Things like life insurance, the will, the family, those are all not really any of your business. You're an employee. It's great that you want to be helpful, but that assistance shouldn't really go beyond fulfilling your (presumably limited) duties to the company unless you are specifically asked to do more by the family or the estate attorney.
posted by valkyryn at 9:13 AM on September 9, 2013 [2 favorites]
I might be inclined to let the other CPA and attorney sort out the required next steps; meanwhile, if you produced a document that summarizes every active client (with contact info), status of their project, upcoming deadlines or deliverables owed, etc, I think a document like that would be tremendously valuable. It is the kind of information that may not be well-organized now, but will be integral to pretty much any next steps that need to be taken, and will also allow any third-party to quickly survey the landscape.
And yes, it makes you look proactive without being presumptuous/inappropriate (e.g. don't contact the sibling of your deceased boss)
posted by misterbrandt at 9:16 AM on September 9, 2013 [8 favorites]
And yes, it makes you look proactive without being presumptuous/inappropriate (e.g. don't contact the sibling of your deceased boss)
posted by misterbrandt at 9:16 AM on September 9, 2013 [8 favorites]
So sorry for your loss.
Just as an FYI, as I was privy to something similar - know and perhaps plan that you might not get paid for a while.
posted by Dashy at 9:35 AM on September 9, 2013 [1 favorite]
Just as an FYI, as I was privy to something similar - know and perhaps plan that you might not get paid for a while.
posted by Dashy at 9:35 AM on September 9, 2013 [1 favorite]
Mod note: This is a followup from the asker.
I guess I need to clarify, I must not have phrased well originally: These aren't my decisions to make. However, the decision-makers are stressed out and mostly dealing with very immediate things right now. All the generalities are well and good, but we know most of them already; what I'm looking for are actual resources produced by people in relevant fields for how to do these sorts of transitions. Stuff I can put together and present to someone less internet-savvy in a tidy sort of way. Things that various industries consider to be best practices. I figure there have to be some, but I don't know how to find them.posted by cortex (staff) at 11:50 AM on September 9, 2013
Unfortunately, most of what you're looking for can be easily summed up in a single piece of advice: "Call a lawyer." Most of what needs to be done should either (1) be handled by an attorney directly or (2) not be handled without consulting an attorney.
This sort of thing is part of what attorneys do. There are any number of different ways of screwing this up, and handling it without proper advice is just asking for trouble. The problem with small businesses is that many of them are so idiosyncratic that it's hard to make definitive lists of how to handle situations like this. Any resource would have to say things like "If you do X, then you need to do A, but not if you've done X and Y, in which case you need to do B, but if it's just Y, then C. And if it's Z then you need to do both A and B." Etc. Figuring out what the deal is and where to go from there is part of the counselling function of the legal profession, and let me assure you, that's a huge part of what we do.
Simply put, there is no one-size-fits-all resource for this kind of situation. The "relevant field" in question here is "law" and people in that field are called "lawyers." The best thing you can do right now is to continue doing your assigned duties to the best of your ability, and encourage the higher-ups to start working with corporate counsel as soon as possible, if they haven't started that already.
posted by valkyryn at 12:31 PM on September 9, 2013 [4 favorites]
This sort of thing is part of what attorneys do. There are any number of different ways of screwing this up, and handling it without proper advice is just asking for trouble. The problem with small businesses is that many of them are so idiosyncratic that it's hard to make definitive lists of how to handle situations like this. Any resource would have to say things like "If you do X, then you need to do A, but not if you've done X and Y, in which case you need to do B, but if it's just Y, then C. And if it's Z then you need to do both A and B." Etc. Figuring out what the deal is and where to go from there is part of the counselling function of the legal profession, and let me assure you, that's a huge part of what we do.
Simply put, there is no one-size-fits-all resource for this kind of situation. The "relevant field" in question here is "law" and people in that field are called "lawyers." The best thing you can do right now is to continue doing your assigned duties to the best of your ability, and encourage the higher-ups to start working with corporate counsel as soon as possible, if they haven't started that already.
posted by valkyryn at 12:31 PM on September 9, 2013 [4 favorites]
« Older How do you teach values (I'm not talking about... | First time in India, looking for decent hotel for... Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.
The search term you'd want is "crisis communication [YOUR CITY]".
posted by dawkins_7 at 8:44 AM on September 9, 2013