Picture a Monday morning where you simply don,t show up. Not because you retired, not because you sold the business, because of an accident, a health event, or something else entirely unplanned. You’re alive. You’re re just unavailable.
Now ask the real question: what happens next?
Payroll still runs on Friday. Distributions to family members are still expected. A capital call from one of your investments arrives in the mail. A bank wants a signature on a renewal.
A vote needs to be cast at a meeting you’re normally chair without a second thought.
Who acts? Who is authorized to act? And do they know these obligations even exist?
Most business owners and families we work with have a plan for what happens to their assets when they pass away. Far fewer have thought through what happens in the months or years before that, when they’re alive but unable to lead.
That gap is often the most overlooked part of a financial plan, and it's one we spend a great deal of time helping clients close.
Why This Gap Exists
Traditional estate planning answers one question well: what happens to your assets when
you’re gone. Wills, trusts, and beneficiary designations are typically built around a single, clean moment of transfer.
Incapacity doesn’t work that way. It doesn’t arrive with a defined legal trigger. It can appear gradually or suddenly, and it can last months or years. During that stretch, the business still needs a decision-maker. The accounts still need someone with authority.
The investments still need someone empowered to respond before a deadline passes.
If the answer to “who handles this”; isn’t clear and documented, families typically don’t find out in a calm moment. they find out during a crisis, while also managing the emotional weight of a loved one absence.
A Six-Month Readiness Check
Here’s a practical way to see where you stand today. For each item below, ask who, by name, has the legal authority and practical ability to act starting tomorrow, without you.
1. Payroll and operations. If you’re the only authorized signer on the operating account, does someone else have that authority right now, or only in theory?
2. Distributions. If family members depend on regular distributions from a business or trust, is there a way for those to continue without your sign-off?
3. Capital calls. Private investments and fund commitments often carry firm deadlines. Missing one can mean losing a position or facing a penalty. Who is watching for these notices if you’re not?
4. Banking access. Many business owners are the sole signer on operating accounts and
credit lines. Banks are conservative institutions; without the right documentation already on file, they won’t simply take a family member’s word for it.
5. Contracts. Leases, vendor agreements, and loan covenants often require notice or renewal within specific windows. A missed deadline because no one had authority to respond is common, and avoidable.
6. Voting rights and control. If you hold voting control in a company or investment vehicle,
who exercises that vote if you can't? An empty seat at a critical decision is rarely a neutral outcome.
Most families who work through this list honestly find at least a few gaps they assumed were already covered.
Why This Is Easy to Put Off
It isn’t a lack of care. Planning for death allows a certain distance; it’s final, and by definition you won’t be there to see it play out. Planning for incapacity is different. It means imagining yourself alive, in some diminished capacity, watching decisions unfold without you, and it means handing over real authority to someone else while you’re still capable of using it yourself. That’s a harder decision to make, and an easier one to postpone.
There’s also a practical reason this gap grows over time. A power of attorney or succession provision drafted years ago, when a business or portfolio looked very different, may no longer reflect the entities, accounts, and relationships that exist today. The document is there; it’s just no longer built for the estate it’s meant to protect.
The Role We Play
This is exactly where an integrated financial planning approach matters most. At Alpina
Financial Consultants, we work alongside your estate planning attorney, tax professionals, and banking relationships to help make sure the legal documents in place actually function the way they’re intended to, operationally, not just on paper.
That can mean helping identify where liquidity should sit so payroll and distributions aren’t
dependent on a single signature, coordinating with your attorney so incapacity, not just death, is addressed in your entity and trust documents, and making sure the people who would need to step in actually know where the accounts are, who the advisors are, and what’s coming due. We also help clients revisit these plans as their businesses and portfolios grow, since a plan built years ago rarely still fits today’s picture without a fresh look.
A Question Worth Sitting With
This isn’t something to plan for once and file away. Businesses grow, entities multiply, and the people you’d trust to step in change too. It’s worth revisiting the six-month test every few years, not just at the outset.
But it starts with an honest answer to one question: If tomorrow you were simply unavailable, not gone, just unavailable; would your business, your estate, and your family know exactly what to do?
If you’re not certain, you’re not alone. Most people aren’t. A conversation with our team is a good place to start finding out.
This content is developed from sources believed to be providing accurate information.
The information provided is not written or intended as tax or legal advice and may not be relied on for purposes of avoiding any federal tax penalties. Individuals are encouraged to seek advice from their own tax or legal counsel. Individuals involved in the estate planning process should work with an estate planning team, including their own personal legal or tax counsel.
Neither the information presented nor any opinion expressed constitutes a representation by us of a specific investment or the purchase or sale of any securities. Securities offered through LPL Financial, Member FINRA & SIPC. Advisory services offered through National Wealth Management Group, LLC, a Registered Investment Advisor. Alpina Financial Consultants, LLC and National Wealth Management Group, LLC are separate entities from LPL Financial LLC.