Even Hippos Require Succession Planning

Seattle zoo's oldest animal euthanized3/26/2010 8:41:42 AM
Associated Press

SEATTLE — Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo has euthanized its oldest animal — a 47-year-old hippo named Gertie — because of normal, age-related physical decline.

The 5,000-pound (2,268-kilogram) hippo has lived at the zoo since 1966. She had osteoarthritis and despite medication, zoo officials say she was having trouble getting around and was in pain.

Zoo officials say hippos can live up to 49 years in zoos. Their life expectancy is 45 years in the wild.


This short news article was followed by a longer one that covered the ways that the zoo developed as "succession plans" to prepare for changes in their hippo community. It is telling that even zoo keepers face the same issues that we face as business owners – no one lives forever, so to be prepared we must simply tackle the nitty-gritty of succession planning.
For publicly held businesses, succession planning is often the major focus of the Board of Directors. For a family-owned business it is rarely done in advance, resulting in squabbles, liquidity and tax problems, and loss of the key family resource for pennies or nothing.
In today's economy, facing serious changes in the estate tax environment, business owners do not have the luxury of avoiding a succession plan for management and ownership. How many of us will take the required action to go see our lawyer, our CPA, to design a plan? Think about it.