Buy-Sell Agreements in Ohio

A buy-sell agreement is a contract, or part of a larger contract that controls how ownership shares of a company are bought and sold among owners.  If you have started a business with other partners, or been granted ownership shares among other owners, then you may already be a party to a buy-sell agreement, or you may want to implement a buy-sell agreement.  A buy-sell agreement provides a mechanism to keep control of a company among the current owners (or potentially their heirs) and to prevent unwanted ownership change.  The law firm of Harris & Engler is located in Columbus, Ohio, and provides legal services all over Ohio.  The law firm of Harris & Engler helps businesses with all aspects of their business including buy-sell agreements.  If you need a skillfully drafted buy-sell agreement for your business, then contact an attorney at Harris & Engler.

What is the Purpose of a Buy-Sell Agreement?

A buy-sell agreement is critically important to any owner of a business.  A buy-sell agreement can be designed to:

• Protect your ownership interest
• Protect your ability to sell your ownership interest
• Create the ability to expand your ownership interest
• Protect management of the Company
• Protect the business against unwanted owners
• Protect your ability to pass along ownership of the Company to your heirs
• Prevent expensive litigation over ownership of the Company

If you jointly own a business then you may not be aware that your ownership share of the business could be seized and transferred to your creditors pursuant to a bankruptcy or part of your ownership could be seized by your spouse in a divorce.  This leads to problems all around.  Not only do you want to prevent forcibly losing your ownership stake in your company, but your partners do not want to forcibly become partners with your ex-spouse or your creditors during a bankruptcy.  A good buy-sell agreement accounts for these possibilities and prevents them from happening.

Drafting a Buy-Sell Agreement

The law firm of Harris & Engler has attorneys who will draft a buy-sell agreement that caters to your needs.  In the best case scenario, a good buy-sell agreement will be created at the onset of the business and will be incorporated into the partnership agreement or operating agreement of the business.  However, if this was not done, or the needs of the owners have changed since the business was started, then a new buy-sell agreement can be created at a later date.  The buy-sell agreement should ideally be drafted before the need arises, but it can still be drafted as the need arises in negotiating the buy out of a departing owner.  

The best buy-sell agreements are drafted by an attorney specifically to cater the owner's unique needs.  Some owners of the same business may have different competing desires: one owner could want to keep the business in the family, and another owner may want to sell their shares to the highest bidder.  The buy-sell agreement should be custom tailored to the needs of the owner - so that they can maintain control of the business as they desire, sell their share in order to retire when needed, and it can even be designed to leave the owner's some measure of control after they retire.  You can contact experienced business attorneys located in Columbus, Ohio by calling (614) 610-9988.

Litigation of Buy-Sell Agreements in Ohio

Proper drafting of a buy-sell agreement is designed to eliminate the possibility of later litigation.  However, sometimes even having the best drafted buy-sell agreement in place does not necessarily ensure that all the parties to the agreement will actually follow the agreement.  When there is a breach of a buy-sell agreement, or there was a bad buy-sell agreement, or there was no buy-sell agreement, sometimes it simply comes down to litigation to sort things out.  The attorneys at Harris & Engler are litigators experienced in complex business transactions.  Whether you are already embroiled in a lawsuit over the ownership of your company, or you feel the pending necessity of a lawsuit, contact an attorney at Harris & Engler today by calling (614) 610-9988.  

Ohio Buy-Sell Agreement Attorneys

The law firm of Harris & Engler helps business owners all around Ohio with buy-sell agreements as well as a wide assortment of legal services for Ohio businesses.  The law firm of Harris & Engler has offices located in Columbus, Ohio, and you can call an attorney today at (614) 610-9988.