Questions About Experience and Volume
These questions establish whether the attorney handles business succession regularly enough to recognize the patterns that cause plans to fail.
How many business succession plans have you completed in the last 12 months? The answer you are looking for is at least five. An attorney who completes five or more per year has enough volume to know the common gaps — the unfunded buy-sell, the trust without an updated operating agreement, the fixed buy-sell price that does not pass IRS scrutiny. An attorney who completes one or two per year is still learning the patterns. Anything under three should prompt a follow-up: what type of businesses do you typically work with?
Have you handled succession planning specifically for [your entity type]? S-Corps, C-Corps, LLCs, and partnerships have different succession rules. S-Corp shares can only be held by specific trust types under IRC § 1361 — placing S-Corp shares in a standard revocable trust without making the ESBT election can inadvertently terminate the S-Corp election. C-Corp entity-redemption buy-sell agreements have additional complications since the Connelly v. United States (2024) ruling. An attorney who has not handled your entity type recently may not know the current rules.
Do you work with CPAs and financial advisors on succession plans? A business succession plan has tax implications that a CPA needs to review — buy-sell valuation method, key man insurance tax treatment, trust structure for estate tax purposes. An attorney who works in isolation is building half a plan. The answer you want: “Yes, we coordinate with your existing CPA or can refer you to one who handles business succession tax work.”
Questions About Document Coordination
These questions reveal whether the attorney understands how the individual documents in a succession plan work together — which is where most plans actually fail.
Can you walk me through what happens to my business on the day I die? This is the most important question. Ask for a step-by-step explanation: who acts first, what authority they have, where the money comes from, and what happens if co-owners are involved. A qualified attorney should be able to answer this specifically — naming who acts under the trust, what the operating agreement authorizes them to do, and how the buy-sell agreement is funded. A vague answer about “ensuring a smooth transition” is not an answer.
How do you confirm that the trust, operating agreement, and buy-sell agreement are coordinated? The answer should describe a specific process for reviewing all three documents together — not a general statement about reviewing client documents. The attorney should be looking for: whether the successor trustee and the designated LLC member are the same person, whether the buy-sell price or valuation method is current, and whether the operating agreement authorizes the successor to act as a full member without requiring a vote.
What happens if my LLC interest is not titled in the trust? This question tests whether the attorney understands the retitling requirement. The correct answer: the LLC interest passes through probate regardless of what the trust says, because the trust only controls assets titled in its name. If the attorney does not identify this gap immediately, they may not be checking for it in their standard process.
Questions About the Buy-Sell Agreement
Buy-sell agreements are where the most expensive succession failures happen. These questions reveal whether the attorney builds buy-sell agreements that will actually work.
How do you handle buy-sell pricing? The answer should not be “we use a fixed price.” A fixed price set at formation becomes stale within a few years and can be challenged by the IRS under IRC § 2703 if it no longer reflects fair market value. The attorney should use a formula-based valuation method — EBITDA multiple, revenue multiple, or a third-party appraisal requirement — and should be able to explain how that method protects the plan from IRS challenge.
How do you confirm the buy-sell is funded? The attorney should have a process for verifying that life insurance or another funding mechanism is in place and sized to match the current buyout obligation. An attorney who drafts the buy-sell agreement and leaves the funding question to the client is building an unfunded plan. Ask whether they coordinate with a life insurance advisor as part of the engagement.
Are you familiar with the Connelly ruling and how it affects C-Corp buy-sell structures? The Connelly v. United States (2024) Supreme Court ruling held that life insurance owned by a C-Corp inflates the estate value of the deceased owner’s shares — eliminating the estate tax benefit that entity-redemption structures were designed to provide. An attorney handling C-Corp succession must know this ruling and must structure the buy-sell accordingly (typically by using a cross-purchase structure instead of entity redemption). If they are not familiar with Connelly, they are building C-Corp buy-sell agreements with an unresolved IRS risk.
Questions About the Process and Follow-Up
These questions reveal whether the attorney treats succession planning as a long-term relationship or a one-time transaction.
What happens after the plan is completed? The answer should include a specific review cadence — typically every three years — and a process for updating the plan when business value, ownership, or personal circumstances change. An attorney who delivers the documents and has no follow-up process is treating succession as a transaction. A succession plan that was accurate at signing may be completely wrong five years later.
Do you brief the designated successor on what to do? When the triggering event happens, the successor needs to know where the documents are, what their authority is, and who to contact first. An attorney who does not include a successor briefing as part of the engagement is leaving the execution gap open. The successor who learns about their role at the hospital is already behind.
For a full breakdown of what a qualified attorney should know and look for when building a plan, see How to Evaluate a Georgia Business Succession Attorney.
What the Right Answers Sound Like
A qualified Georgia business succession attorney should answer every question in this list without hesitation. The pattern across their answers will be the same: they know the specific rules for your entity type, they have a documented process for coordinating the documents, they work with CPAs and financial advisors, and they schedule follow-up reviews as a standard part of the engagement.
If an attorney gives vague answers, defers the coordination questions (“we review everything together”), or cannot explain the Connelly ruling or the IRC § 1361 S-Corp eligibility rules, those are not gaps in communication. They are gaps in expertise. A succession plan is only as strong as the attorney who built it.
For more on what a Georgia business succession plan must contain to actually work, see How to Know if Your Business Succession Plan Will Actually Work.
How to Get Started
1
Book a Free Strategy Call
Use the questions in this article on that call. We will answer every one of them directly — entity type, document coordination, buy-sell funding, successor briefing, and review schedule. If our answers do not satisfy you, we are not the right fit and we will tell you that upfront.
2
Review Your Current Documents Together
We read your existing operating agreement, buy-sell agreement, and trust before we write anything. The coordination failures are almost always in the documents you already have — not the ones we are about to draft.
3
Execute the Plan and Schedule the Review
We build every document, coordinate with your CPA, brief your successor, and schedule a three-year review. The plan is not done when you sign — it is done when the successor can activate it without a phone call to an attorney.
