656 - Closing a Family Business

Life can really get challenging when you lose someone and they owned a business.  Emily and I had to face that, with our dad, and I’ve shared about it and now Anna Hall is sharing about her dad. Anna has two younger brothers and she was kind enough to share their experience with settling his estate, taking care of his business and employees, and the family house her father built with his two hands. It couldn’t have come at a more complicated time for Anna. She and her husband had just built a house one year prior to be a half mile between her mom and her dad who were divorced.  And Anna was in school for her doctorate, had an almost 2 year old son, and at almost 31 years had no experience how to settle an estate and grieve the loss of a parent.

It’s never planned

None of us plan when we’ll pass although we may know it’s coming soon. Our passing comes with great emotional distress to those we love. How can we make it easier on them? Do like Anna’s dad did. Thankfully he was a meticulous person and all of his paperwork was orderly and passwords were readily available. It saved a lot of time and money in lawyer fees because the lawyer didn’t have to go on a wild goose chase to obtain information. Anna advises to show up with as much paperwork as you can in that first visit. Her father assigned her uncle as the executor but let Anna and her brothers be in charge. He had a will and a separate document for the business. Her father also had titles transferred upon death saving money on taxes and keeping belongings out of probate.

What to do with the business?

Anna called a meeting with her brothers and a long time employee of her dad’s, JR. Her dad’s dying wish was to keep him working as long as JR wanted to. One of her brothers lived out of state so he wasn’t going to be able to help and Anna worked as a teacher full time so they needed to assign roles. It wasn’t too long after that Anna, who was the leader, realized her brothers weren’t paying attention to the reports, she was fine with that but wasn’t going to devote time to that anymore. 

Anna led her dad’s company for 4 ½ years but was ready to sell the company. As fate would have it her father in law had a friend with a similar business. They needed a skilled wood crafter too like JR. Anna was able to sell her fathers company, keep JR working, and keep their current customer list serviced. It was such a blessing for Anna who now had two children and ambition to pursue a career as a result of getting her PhD. However, they did not purchase the warehouse. Anna took time to sell off items. It was sweet for Anna to have some of her father’s friends stop by, share stories, and maybe claim an item or two to remember their friend.

There’s something about the 5 year mark

There was something special for Anna to run the company for almost 5 years. She cherished being the one to carry on the legacy of her dad. If you find you just can’t part with some items yet, that’s ok. I always say get a storage unit, give yourself time with those items, and avoid regretting that you got rid of them. And we talked about that significant 5 year mark. I shared in a previous episode how around the 5 year mark I was able to see some of my dad’s items with less significance. You start to realize that person is a part of you and your memories. They aren’t that thing. The material things no longer represent them. 

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