Plan Now for Greater Success. Too often, entrepreneurs work hard, succeed, and then start to worry about how they can pass money along to younger family members. If you have a viable idea now for a book, a contract, or other enterprise that can make you big money down the road, you should organize yourself to do business in a family corporation, partnership or other entity which is already owned, in part, by other family members. If you give these shares away before they become valuable, there is no tax. You can retain a minority interest in the business but still make the decisions and retain all or most of the income in return for management of the enterprise.
Control is far more important than ownership.
You'll find you can pass much more to your children if you maintain control but let others own restricted shares in your business now. Charles Nance is an attorney with Conway and Nance in Richmond, Virginia, as well as a popular conference speaker. His law practice is limited to estate planning, business planning, and family wealth transfers.