What to look for in a Buy-Sell Agreement

Your company’s buy-sell agreement may be one of the most important legal documents in your life. It may not seem or feel that way most of the time, but if and when you need that agreement, it can either save you huge sums of money and incalculable stress and suffering, or it can cause you to lose huge sums of money and suffer incalculable stress. The outcome depends on whether or not your buy-sell agreement is well designed, or not. And, unfortunately many buy-sell agreements make one or more of several surprisingly common mistakes.

Quickly – What is a Buy-Sell Agreement

Buy-sell agreements (also commonly called shareholder agreements or member interest agreements) are legal documents that identify situations where ownership in the company may change hands, and then provide instructions on how to handle each case. The most familiar example is what happens upon the death of a partner. A buy-sell agreement usually requires the deceased owner’s heirs to sell the interest back to the company or the surviving owner(s) and at a specified price. This provision protects everybody: the deceased owner’s heirs receive a cash payout while the remaining owner(s) move forward without unwanted business partners. Most buy-sell agreements have provisions to address a shareholder’s death or other triggering events, such as retirement or severe disability.

Click here to read the top 3 mistakes owners make with buy-sell agreements.

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