Uncertainty Follows Grief When Small Business Owners Die Without Succession Plans

When Jim McLaughlin died suddenly from a heart attack at age 64, his family assumed they would have to close his homebuilding business. He’d made no plans for someone to succeed him at McLaughlin Construction, and there was no employee who could step in and take his place.But as McLaughlin’s son-in-law, Chris Carr, started to wind down the Sea Isle City, New Jersey, company five years ago, he realized it was worth keeping open and that he, an accountant, should try to run it. “The main issue I had to deal with was, how in the world could we convince customers that it’s a good idea to build a house with a guy who was an accountant 30 days before this,” Carr says. Working with his wife Kristy, he also had to reassure employees and contractors worried about their livelihoods, and encourage them to stay with the company.