Monday, February 6, 2012

Estate Planning in New Jersey for Pharmacy Owners

By Brad MacLiver
Authorship and profile at Google


With the current market conditions many NJ pharmacy owners are experiencing lower profit margins and have considered selling. A pharmacy industry roll-up in New Jersey has been occurring for a number of years, consolidating the pharmacy seller’s customer traffic into fewer pharmacy locations. However, there are a number of pharmacies that are not in a geographic location with other nearby pharmacies, so consolidation can’t take place. Some pharmacy and drug store owners in New Jersey, despite where they are located or what is happening in the industry, have taken a stance and won’t consider selling. However, just like paying taxes, an exit of the business, is eventually inevitable.

Estate Planning is, to many people in all industries, a topic which tends to be avoided.  Pharmacy owners that work 6 days a week, do not take many vacations, fill scripts all day, then mop the floor and do the books at night usually don’t have much time to consider additional things such as estate planning.  However, acknowledging that there will inevitably be a transfer of the business, it is important for the pharmacy owner to complete a proper succession plan for the New Jersey pharmacy business.

Developing a plan for transfer of the business will be time consuming, but when correctly it will allow the business to be successfully transferred in an acceptable manner. It is not necessary that an estate plan for a pharmacy owner be a changeless process. Making fine-tuned adjustments, updates, and amendments are advised as government regulations, personal expectations, and economic conditions change.

Estate planning enables a pharmacy owner in New Jersey to anticipate and arrange for the transfer of the drug store. The plan will be formatted in an attempt to eliminate any uncertainties, assist the transfer by trimming expenses, and reduce taxes.

The process may involve Trusts, Wills, Living Wills, Power of Attorney, Medical Power of Attorney, Business Valuations, Life Insurance, Charitable Remainder Trusts, Buy-Sell Agreements, and other legal documents. All of the different aspects of the estate planning are to provide the pharmacy owners coordinated directives.

When there are non-family members as partners in the drug store business, it is essential that the estate planning incorporate a Buy-Sell Agreement. A buy-sell agreement, governs the transfer of the business between NJ pharmacy partners. The agreement may also be known as a partner buyout agreement, or a business will. To help protect the family in the event of a partner’s death, the buy-sell agreement may be funded with a life insurance policy.

Estate planning, buy-sell agreements, and the transfer of the pharmacy should incorporate a pharmacy business valuation completed by a third party that has expertise in the pharmacy industry, performs a large number of pharmacy business valuations each year, and has current industry data as a basis for the conclusions. Using simple accounting formulas, multipliers, and valuators inexperienced in pharmacy will not provide an accurate business valuation.

Most pharmacy owners spend a major part of their life building the business. The efforts should not disappear because the pharmacy owner refuses to accept their mortality and plan accordingly. The only pharmacist in some small New Jersey pharmacies is the owner. If the scripts can’t be filled by a licensed pharmacist then by law the customer files must be transferred to another pharmacy. Due to this, a pharmacy’s business value may drop to a negligible figure in just a few days after the passing of the owner. Contingencies outlined in an estate plan should address this issue. Unfortunately due to not having an effective plan in place, each year a number of pharmacy owners die and their family is left with an asset with very little value.

Tips for NJ Pharmacvy Onwers:        


1. When the family drug store is the sole means of income for several family members it becomes even more crucial to have a succession plan in place.

2. To avoid disputes, estate plans should be developed with clear directives.

3. Minimizing tax liabilities is a major objective for most completing an estate plan, therefore expert tax advice should be sought.

4. Many on-line documents and books are available that provide advice and documents for developing an estate plan. When going the self-help route, it is advisable to have a paid expert review the completed documentation to ensure that it can be legally complied with when the time comes.

5. While developing the estate plan it is essential to talk with children and other family members of the NJ pharmacy owner especially if there are some family that work in the business and others that don’t.