You'll only hand off this business once. Do it in a way that keeps your relationships whole.

We work with owners on the human side of transition: who takes over, when, and how everyone stays aligned while it happens. Your attorneys and CPAs get a clear roadmap. The people you care about get a plan they helped build.

Trusted by families and businesses referred to us by their attorneys, CPAs, financial advisors, and peer groups like Tiger 21.

Who We Work With

You're the owner.

You’ve built something meaningful, and you’re not ready to walk away. You also know you can’t run it forever, and you want to do this on purpose, not under pressure. Start now and you set the timeline. Wait, and something else will set it for you.

You're the successor.

You’ve been carrying responsibility without the ownership or authority to match. You’re ready to step into a bigger role, and you want a structured path to get there, not a someday promise.

You're a family or team navigating this together.

You want to protect the relationships and the name on the door. Maybe you’ve tried to have the conversation and it didn’t go the way you hoped. The people are rarely the problem. A real process gives everyone a real seat in the plan. [How We Help Families]

The Cost of Waiting

Every month without a plan, the transfer gets harder.

A founder’s knowledge doesn’t wait. Every year, clarity erodes a little more and the list of options gets shorter. Families and businesses that start early keep the most choices. Waiting usually means reacting, to a health event or a conversation that went sideways.

The best time to start is before it feels urgent. Evolve is how you start.

The

Evolve Program

We’ve guided hundreds of families and businesses through transitions over 30 years. Across the industry, roughly 30% of transitions succeed.¹ Ninety-five percent of ours do.

Evolve is our 12-month guided program. You get a complete Transition Roadmap and facilitated conversations that include everyone with a stake in the outcome, with steady support the whole way through. Evolve covers ownership structure, tax strategy, roles, timelines, and the conversations nobody wants to have first, so your attorneys and CPAs have a clear foundation to build on.

In 30 years, we’ve never left a family without a clear path forward.

¹ Source: Conway Center for Family Business Facts, [https://www.familybusinesscenter.com/resources/family-business-facts/]. Original research traces to family business succession studies from the 1980s (Ward, Keeping the Family Business Healthy).

Client Success Stories

"Until we started the work with Elizabeth and The Transition Strategists, I only saw the business succession going one way. It wasn't until we did that work that I saw there's more than one possibility for transition. The Transition Strategist process allowed me to consider my goals from a much broader perspective. So my fears and concerns about transitioning turned into a better understanding of the big picture view."

"I think by default, family businesses are tough. They have some inherent challenges that really require someone like Elizabeth who has done it before to help you walk through it. The most helpful part about working with The Transition Strategists was when my gut wasn't right, my experience wasn't sufficient, or my perspective wasn't broad enough, moving through their process got us where we are today."

Blog

We share tips and relevant business succession strategies that support you as you run your company, prepare for transition, and train your successor. Read our succession planning blog posts.