You have probably been told to get your family business succession planning sorted. Solicitors talk about wills and trusts. Accountants talk about inheritance tax. Fair enough, someone has to.
But there is a question that rarely comes up in those meetings. If you stepped back tomorrow, who would your customers ring?
The tax changes are only half the conversation
The rules did change. According to law firm Mishcon de Reya, from 6 April 2026 business property relief gives 100% relief on inheritance tax only up to a cap. The cap was first set at £1m and then raised to £2.5m. Above it, relief drops to 50%. Unused allowance can be passed between spouses, so a couple could have up to £5.65m of qualifying business or farm value inside the relief. That is a summary of one firm’s reading, not tax advice. Your accountant needs to check it against your own position.
Here is my point. Relief limits the tax bill on the value of the business. It does nothing to protect the value itself. If the business only works while you are in the building, the value is fragile, and no relief fixes that.
Does your sales depend on you?
Most owner-led firms are more dependent than the owner thinks. Check yourself against this list:
- Your biggest accounts deal with you and nobody else.
- Quotes only go out once you have had a look.
- Pricing lives in your head, not on paper.
- Enquiries ask for you by name.
- Nobody could say why your best customers buy from you rather than the competition.
Every one of those is a handover problem. The next generation inherits the company, not the trust you have built over years. That has to be passed on deliberately.
Five commercial steps to take now
- Write down who buys, and why. List your top ten customers, what they spend and who owns each relationship. Add a line on why they chose you. This is your first honest map.
- Introduce your successor properly. Not a handshake at Christmas. Put them in front of each key customer on real business: a review, a problem, a price discussion.
- Get pricing and quoting out of your head. Put the rules on paper. How you price, when you discount, what you will walk away from.
- Make the pipeline visible. A simple shared list of live enquiries, quotes and next actions is enough. If it only exists in your memory, enquiries go cold the moment you are not there, and the business is not ready.
- Hand over real decisions while you are still there. Let your successor win, lose and learn on live deals with you on hand. Doing it for the first time after you leave is too late.
A mentor can help here, because these conversations are easier with someone outside the family.
How long does it take?
Longer than you want. Customers do not move trust on a timetable. If your key accounts buy once a year, a single year only gives your successor one go at it. Allow at least a full buying cycle, and ideally two.
What to do this week
Take your top ten customers by revenue. Next to each, write the name of anyone else in the business who has spoken to them in the last twelve months. Where the only name is yours, you have found your succession risk. Pick the biggest one and book the introduction.
Questions owners ask
What is succession planning in a family business?
It is the plan for who runs, owns and funds the business after you step back. The legal and tax side usually gets covered. The commercial side, meaning customers, pricing and sales, is the part most plans miss.
When should we start?
As soon as anyone is thinking about stepping back, and before you feel you need to. The customer handover is the slowest part because it depends on trust, not paperwork.
Did the business property relief changes affect family firms?
They can. Mishcon de Reya describes a cap on 100% relief from April 2026, set at £2.5m, with 50% relief above it. Whether it affects you depends on the value of your business and your family circumstances, so take advice from your accountant or solicitor.
Who should customers deal with once the owner steps back?
Someone they already know. Build that relationship over time, with the owner present, so it is a continuation and not a surprise.
In short: a succession plan that covers the tax and the will but not the customers is half a plan. For help on the commercial side, see What a fractional marketing director does in a month.
