Presenter, "Fundamentals of Succession and Estate Planning," Association for Washington Business, Olympia, Wash.

Building and succeeding in your own business is one of the most rewarding experiences in life. Alarmingly, only 30 percent of businesses survive the transition to the second generation, and only 34 percent of those carry on into the third generation.

DWT Partner Keith Baldwin and Associate Matt Loftin took part in this presentation. The pros and cons of the following exit strategies were covered:

• Transfer to next generation (family succession)
• Management buyout (leveraged or unleveraged)
• Sale to existing partners
• Sale to employees (ESOP)
• Sale to third party
• Recapitalization
• IPO (uncommon for mid-market companies)
• Orderly liquidation