Business Succession Planning: AGCO Dealers
It has long been AGCO’s objective to enhance our Dealer Agreement by giving you important information that is pertinent to your long-term financial security. Completing and maintaining an up-to-date Succession Plan is a vital task in protecting your core business assets by providing for current financial security, as well as your long-term Retirement and Estate Planning goals. In other words…building a safety net around your dealership.
With so much at stake, why don’t more business owners make this a priority?
We understand that completing a Succession Plan takes time, and draws you away from the important duties of running your operation. We also understand that reviewing the plan on a regular basis, keeping it current, and integrating it with your Personal Retirement and Estate Plan is a serious ongoing commitment.
We believe that a smooth and orderly transition from owner to capitalizing on the value within your dealership is vitally important. While in the past, various opportunities have been presented to Dealers with varying levels of success, a viable solution does exist.
RJ Rau & Associates is a unique organization in Canada serving the enterprise succession planning needs of AGCO Dealers on a national basis, using Process First™ - a multi-layered risk management system that uses a proven process and delivers concrete results. It is focused on the special needs of AGCO Dealers and as an added benefit, can incorporate the needs of partners and family members. RJ Rau & Associates has assembled a seasoned team of succession planning professionals – accountants, lawyers and actuaries - regarded as “best in class” in Canada, to provide you with additional Business Succession information that will help you better understand the important issues that need to be addressed in your plan. They will meet with you 'one on one' and provide you and your independent professional advisers with legal, tax and planning advice, concepts and ideas related to enterprise succession planning, and ensure all funding strategies are addressed.
A properly structured plan protects you, your family, your business partnership, and your employees. It makes certain that in the event of death, disability, critical illness or retirement, you and your heirs will realize the value of your hard work. With proper planning this transition can be accomplished at the right price, while deferring or minimizing taxation.
AGCO Corporation is not a joint venture, partner, principal or agent of RJ Rau & Associates, and does not assume any responsibility for, and does not guarantee performance by or the solvency of any financial solutions recommended by RJ Rau & Associates.
Ron Rau and his Team will be contacting you shortly to follow-up on this letter and to offer their assistance with properly funding your Shareholders Agreement, Business Succession Planning and other pertinent issues.
Sincerely,
 Albert Scott Regional Dealer Development Manager |
 Wayne Watson Regional Dealer Development Manager |
With this in mind, our team at RJ Rau & Associates has thoroughly researched the unique problems faced by the AGCO Dealer network in planning for succession. We know the years of hard and sacrifice that are necessary to build a successful Dealership.
Whether on your own, or in partnership, we have the expertise to assist you to develop plans to ensure the continuation of your business and the entrenchment of your core business value. We have developed strategies to deal with the ensuing business disruption in the event an owner or a multiple owner dealer suffers from death, disability, or dispute, or if a dealer simply wants to capitalize on their ownership equity either before or at retirement.
We will work with you and your advisors – accountants and lawyers- to tailor and customize a succession plan unique to your situation, and to provide unique innovative funding instruments in the event of death, disability or dispute. Just as a professional athlete visualizes each move, as a team we can show unique and creative ways that owners can avoid tax cycles at certain points in time and use unique proprietary financial instruments to greatly reduce the cost of purchasing or selling a business.
The real threat to private business lies primarily within the business practices and policies of its owners. Too many family owned businesses (dealerships) seem to suffer from “corporeuthanasia,” a term used to describe the owner’s act (conscious or subconscious) of willfully killing off the business he or she loves by failing to provide in his or her lifetime, for a viable organization with clear continuity. In other words…lack of a viable succession plan.
This disaster occurs because the owner of the business cannot face the fact that at some point he or she must…and will be replaced. If the successful business owner, who had the ability, vision, and guts to build his or her business from nothing, does not have the courage to face the problems of the future, then his or her banker and attorney will do it for them on the way back from their funeral – four cars back from the flowers.
Our team has developed a unique multi-layered approach called Process First™ which focuses on the dealer, enabling you to build a safety net around your dealership.
We believe that it is important for each dealer to have plans in place to ensure the continuation of the business and the entrenchment of their business values. In other words, as well as complying with AGCO’s requirements, it just makes good business sense, and we can’t stress this enough. We have developed this approach to put orderly succession “top of mind” for each dealer and to do it while things are going well.
There are basically three stages to a business lifecycle, ranging from buying to retirement – death, disability or voluntary - (transferring), at which point someone hopefully buys in, and a new owner begins the same cycle:
Process First™ utilizes a multi-layered risk management process that brings a proven process and will deliver concrete results for each dealer and for AGCO. It has been developed to focus on the special needs of AGCO dealers, and as an added benefit can incorporate the needs of family members and/or key employees.
We also have a broad array of health risk management products, most of which are proprietary, allowing us to “crash test” each Dealer – simulating what your business might look like should you be unable to work for extended periods due to illness. In particular, TriAccess™ is an extremely valuable funding mechanism for Dealers in rural areas who do not have access to the same quantity and quality of care as close to home as someone in a larger urban area.
Our team will work with you to create a viable Succession Plan that works, and that just makes good sense. Even if you currently have a Succession Plan, we can offer a second opinion, and may be able to offer you additional value added. We look forward to working with you.