Continuity vs. Succession: The Plan Every Business Owner Keeps Putting Off w/ Scott Leak

What happens to your business, your team, and your clients if you don't come home tomorrow? In this episode, Tom sits down with Scott Leak, Director of Business Development at FP Transitions, to talk through the plan most small business owners keep meaning to write and never do. Scott spent nearly thirty years in financial services, much of it at TD Ameritrade Institutional, and now works exclusively on business continuity, succession, and valuation. He is a CFP® professional and a Certified Exit Planning Advisor. This one is for listeners who own something: a practice, a shop, a clinic, a firm. And for everyone else, it's a look at what actually happens when a business owner you depend on disappears without a plan. Tom & Scott Discuss: The difference between a continuity plan (an unplanned exit through death or disability) and a succession plan (a planned exit on your own terms), and why the continuity plan is the one that's genuinely vital Why a handshake agreement isn't a plan, and how undocumented arrangements end up in court over businesses worth millions The three groups a continuity plan protects: your estate, your employees, and your clients Scott's story about the dentist who retired without telling anyone, and what it taught him about the last obligation you owe the people who trust you How a buyer can fund the purchase with a life insurance policy on the seller, often for a couple hundred dollars a month Why disability, not death, is the more likely trigger for an owner in their forties, and why "disabled" has to be defined objectively in the document before anyone needs it The founder whose stroke turned into a standoff with his own successor, and what it cost the family Scott's "will and skill" test for spotting a future owner inside your business, and which of the two you can't teach Why you don't have to replace yourself with one person Tom's own experience rebuilding the Twin Robins continuity plan less than a year after finishing the first one Resources mentioned: FP Transitions Disclosure: Tom worked with and under Scott Leak at TD Ameritrade Institutional. Tom is a fee-only financial planner and receives no referral fees, commissions, or compensation of any kind from Scott Leak or FP Transitions. This episode is for informational purposes only and is not tax, legal, or investment advice. Please consult qualified professionals before making any financial decisions.