The Business Nobody Asked For

Reader submission — R., Kentucky

"My father died in March. He left me his shoe repair shop — the one he'd been running for 37 years. I'm a software engineer. I live four hours away. I have no idea how to run a shoe repair shop. I don't even know if I'm supposed to keep it open or close it. There are two employees who've worked there for over a decade. I don't know what I owe them or what happens next."

R. is not alone in this. Inheriting a business is one of the most complicated estate situations there is — and one of the least discussed.

Most people think of inheritance as money, property, or things. A business is all three at once — and it comes with obligations that don’t pause while you figure out what you want to do.

The employees still showed up on Monday. The rent was still due. The suppliers still called. R. had inherited not just a business but a set of relationships his father had built over four decades — and every one of them was waiting to find out what happened next.

He hadn't inherited a shop. He'd inherited a promise his father had made to a lot of people over 37 years.

R. eventually hired a business attorney and an accountant who specialized in small business transitions. He kept the shop open for eight months while working remotely, then sold it to one of the long-term employees at a price they both felt was fair.

It wasn’t what his father had planned. But his father hadn’t planned anything — there was no succession document, no buy-sell agreement, no instruction of any kind. Just a will that said: to my son, everything.

If you own a business

A will is not a succession plan. If you own a business and die without one, you are handing your family a set of obligations they didn't sign up for and don't know how to navigate. A conversation with a business attorney — even a short one — changes this entirely.

— Martin, Cincinnati OH