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Start the succession planning process
You may step back from daily management while keeping shares, or transfer ownership while supporting a transition. Write down the future role you want, your timing and the income you need. Our succession planning advice brings these decisions together. A business structure review helps identify arrangements that need specialist attention.
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Compare realistic succession routes
Family succession, a management buyout, an external management buy-in and a third-party sale involve different people and funding. Explore family business succession, management buyout readiness and management buy-ins. Willingness to take over is a starting point; capability, fit, affordability and agreement also need testing.
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Prepare successors and reduce dependence
A leadership succession readiness review identifies experience gaps and decisions a successor needs to practise. Reducing owner dependence means transferring relationships, knowledge and authority as well as documenting tasks. Give the next leader genuine responsibility with support and review, rather than expecting readiness to appear at the transfer date.
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Agree how the family and business will work
When relatives are involved, distinguish family relationships from employment, ownership and governance. A family business constitution can help record shared expectations. Address family business conflict through clear issues, roles and decision processes. Connect those expectations with family business governance and the appropriate legal arrangements.
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A succession planning framework with steps and owners
Record the preferred route, value and funding questions, successor development, approvals, handover and review dates. The business succession template provides a working structure. Test what happens if timing changes or a key person becomes unavailable. Legal, tax and estate arrangements need the relevant professional input; the business plan should show where those decisions connect.
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Handover, review and adjust
A business handover checklist assigns operational tasks, introductions, access and sign-off. Review whether the successor can make decisions without the outgoing owner quietly taking them back. Our succession planning mistakes guide highlights common gaps. We help owners turn a future intention into a sequence of decisions the business can act on.
Start here
Explore the topic
- Business structure review NZ: prepare for successionPrepare a business structure review for succession in NZ. Map ownership, assets, contracts and funding, then use a worked example to brief your advisers.
- Business succession plan template: decisions, owners and datesA business succession plan becomes useful when it records decisions, responsibilities and review dates.
- Family business governance: separate the conversationsFamily businesses need places to discuss family expectations, ownership and daily operations. Clarifying those forums can help people raise the right question with the right participants.
- Family business succession: start the right conversationsFamily succession involves the future of a business and the expectations of people connected to it. Begin by separating ownership, leadership and family interests so each can be discussed clearly.
- Leadership succession: test readiness for the roleLeadership succession is the transfer of responsibility for results. Assess what the role will require, what the successor has demonstrated and what support is needed before changing the title.
- Management buyout: a readiness guideA management buyout asks an existing team to become owners as well as operators. Test leadership readiness, the funding case and the departing owner's expectations before treating it as the obvious succession route.
- Reduce owner dependence before stepping backIf every exception comes back to the owner, stepping away is difficult even when the team is capable. Find the decisions, knowledge and relationships that need to move before testing a different way of working.
- When succession goes wrong: examples and practical fixesPoor succession planning often starts with an assumption nobody has tested.
- Succession planning NZ: owner transition adviceSuccession planning in New Zealand brings ownership, leadership and personal priorities into one conversation.
- Family business constitutionPlan a family business constitution with a practical contents worksheet, discussion steps and clear roles. Talk to Pivot Point about your family business.
- Family business conflictWork through family business conflict with a meeting checklist, role questions and practical escalation steps. Discuss your business decisions with us.
- Management buy inManagement buy in explained: compare MBI and MBO, funding, due diligence and the handover, with a practical example. Talk to Pivot Point.
- Business handover checklistUse a business handover checklist for people, customers, finance, systems and authority. Download the planning worksheet and discuss your transition.
Your next move
Plan your next ownership chapter
Bring your preferred timing, the people you are considering and the role you want afterwards. We can help clarify the route and the work needed to make it practical.
Plan your next ownership chapter