Continuity in Crisis
1
1
1
Specialized Knowledge
Concurrent Session
5/8/2026
2:15 PM - 3:15 PM
Minneapolis Grand Ballroom (G)
Most financial advisors help clients plan for retirement, liquidity, and estate transfer, but very few address the moment that creates the greatest risk to enterprise value: What happens if the founder disappears tomorrow? Advisors excel at exit and estate planning, but what about the days before either happens? This session reveals the overlooked continuity risks that can destroy enterprise value in the first 90 days after a founder’s sudden absence and provides a clear framework to help your clients prepare.
In founder-led businesses, decision-making, authority, and institutional knowledge are often concentrated in a single individual. While this drives efficiency, it creates a hidden fragility - one that is rarely addressed in traditional planning. This session introduces a practical framework for operational continuity, designed to protect business value during sudden disruption due to death, disability, or external crisis. Attendees will learn why common tools like buy-sell agreements and estate plans often fail under pressure - and what must be in place instead.
This presentation equips advisors with the ability to identify continuity risk, ask better questions, and integrate continuity planning into their broader advisory role. Because the real test of a business isn’t how it performs when the founder is present - it’s whether it can govern itself when the founder is gone.
Learning Objectives:
1. Identify operational continuity risks that arise when authority and decision-making are concentrated in a founder-led business.
2. Explain how continuity failures typically unfold during the first 90 days following a founder’s unexpected absence.
3. Describe the key components of a continuity governance framework, including triggering events, interim authority, oversight, guardrails, and information flow.
4. Evaluate the limitations of traditional planning tools such as buy-sell agreements, operating/shareholder agreements/bylaws, equity incentives, and estate documents when addressing operational continuity.
