What happens to your business if you die?

[FictionNet]

Not the most festive or positive thread, perhaps, but I think a reasonably practical one.

Everyone here will have a different set-up. I have a legal will (Spanish, as required where I live) which allocates all my business assets to my wife. Since that will was drawn up, I married my wife so I suppose she has even more legal protection to 'my' assets now.

My question is this: if I got hit by an asteroid tomorrow, how easy do you think it would be to transfer all 'my' affiliate accounts/domains into her name and change banking details? I would hope it would be a simple process but seeing how our industry has developed recently, I have concerns. I sold a load of affiliate accounts years ago and it was really straightforward to transfer the accounts to the new owner but these days, I'm not so sure. There are some programs where I've been forced to submit ID such as passports and bank statements - it's not so easy now to just login to the backend and change the account ownership over to someone else.

I'm hoping/assuming that the will I have in place (and the fact that we are married) would be sufficient to enable all affiliate programs to transfer ownership to my wife if anything ever happened to me. But I'm wary - because affiliate programs and the way they work has changed, and I fear that my wife would struggle to take control of affiliate accounts (and perhaps domains) 'tied' to me.

So, I thought I'd start this festive topic! Yay! All your businesses will have different structures and so forth, but I wondered how you've set things up in the event that you (or the entire team) fall down a big hole or blow yourselves up trying to replicate Breaking Bad.

Happy Christmas.

[nwalker]

I'm based in the UK, so set myself up as a limited company. My wife owns shares in the company, so if anything happened to me she would be able to carry on running all the accounts and Bank Accounts, as they are in my Business name, not my name personally.

As she actually knows very little about what I do, I have arranged with another affiliate that he will "help" her to sort things out, which may mean selling the business or finding someone to run it for a cut of the the future income.

[Topboss]

In my case as my hubby is a 50/50 partner with me - we have set up the Affiliate accounts where some are in his name and some are in my name, so at least if something happened to one of us - the other would have some income coming in if they weren't able to change the name of the other Affiliate programs.

[Cash Bonus]

In my case as my hubby is a 50/50 partner with me - we have set up the Affiliate accounts where some are in his name and some are in my name, so at least if something happened to one of us - the other would have some income coming in if they weren't able to change the name of the other Affiliate programs.

I completely agree with you, Topboss! This is the right way to go about these things. Good on you for that.

[MMM]

It is a good topic as been wondering about that myself.

My wife knows nothing so agreed with a friend of mine which is a partner in one of my sites, that he will run everything based on certain split of earnings. He has a doc with every password and most important things to know, while my wife has the password for it in case something happens.

I'm less worried about my actual bank account since it will go ok, and less about affiliate accounts (most will be ok and if some not it's small money), but mainly about continuing the operation of the sites as this is my "insurance" for my family.

So IMO - there are two questions to answer.
1. legally - how to set that everything is transfered correctly.
2. how to set that they could enjoy the business in the future.

[TheGooner]

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE :
Affiliation is an ever changing business, and the current environment means the current business is probably NOT viable for the long term.
If you thought that last five years were tough ... take a glance into your crystal ball for the future.

Specifically :
- geographic restrictions and legislation shrinking markets.
- mobile phone growth to 80-90% with mainstream app stores hosting untagged betting product downloads
- anti-affiliate rhetoric in newspapers
- affiliate program closures and deadline MUST COMPLY notices.
- the preponderance of privacy blockers and cookie eaters

I am pretty sure my business will close before I do - and if it happens the other way around I won't really care as we have ensured that we've taken profits out of the business since 1999 - running "lean and mean".

HOW TO ENSURE TRANSFER :
A limited company (UK) or LLC (US) is the obvious method, and making sure that all the assets like bank accounts, affiliate accounts, assets, and websites are recorded as being owned by the company.

Then it's just a matter of issuing shares for control of the company, and having a proper will that passes those shares on to your wife/husband/partner. The death of a person - even a 100% shareholder - does not affect the legal status of a company and the assets it owns.

TRANSFER OF KNOWLEDGE :
That's a LOT harder, but you can write a basic operations manual by documenting what you do on a weekly / monthly / annual basis. I've done this and the routine stuff takes no more than 5-10 subjects at a page per subject.

The annual stuff like company filings / taxes etc, and the myriad of once a year "gotchas" that come up are harder to catch.
And the technical knowledge around HTML coding or SEO or general industry background is almost impossible to summarise.

BUT WILL IT BE ENOUGH ?
But would that be enough for a small business to survive if the principal dies? Probably not. Most affiliate businesses owe their existence to the continued drive and knowledge of the founder.

You can provide a manual, and some guidelines but it's likely anyone from outside the industry will struggle especially if they don't have the same passion ... and that's before you start factoring in all the future looking stuff that will require change and re-engineering.

What would your business be like if it had not re-engineered for mobile traffic in the last five years? Exactly.
So I think that in this environment you cannot expect great longevity without an engaged principal owner.

Five years max.

[elgoog]

https://www.gpwa.org/forum/aff-manag...ng-191454.html

i knew we did discuss this earlier, took me a while to find it though....

[Topboss]

I agree with many of Gooner's points but I tend to be a bit more optimistic for the future....
I do believe that whilst there are going to be many more challenges and it isn't going to be easy - I believe the old " Only the tough will survive " will prevail and there is still a future for hard working Affiliates who are prepared to adapt with the changing times. In all the years I have been in this Business ( 17 years ) - I have seen many times when I thought everything was going to collapse and that was the end of it.

I can't tell you how many times we gave our staff a "warning you might be retrenched so start looking for a job" lecture, however I am pleased to say we never had to go down that route in the end and always adapted, and in some cases came back stronger.

As for mobile - Yep, It is the way of the future, HOWEVER believe it or not we only have a handful of sites that are mobile compatible yet we are still getting a decent amount of players per month...granted it could probably be more if we did convert all our sites, but we are still going strong despite this, and intend to continue getting stronger.

I believe it boils down to Management's attitude and adapting to change.

Sorry, I have gone a bit off topic, but basically just saying that there is still a future, so it is a good idea to put things into place if something happened to you. Ideally try and train up a trusted family member to continue as it can be difficult if the main driver is no longer around.

[Strider1973]

I think the minimum your wife should know (assuming she doesn't want to quit her job or find a nanny for the kids in order to run the business full time) is how the get access to the monthly payments. Most of them come automatically, but not all (e.g. Bet365).

Will your business survive long-term if nothing is done? No, revenues will decrease of course. But she will have time, either to sell your sites/aff accounts or find someone to replace you (who will get a share of revenues and/or a fixed payment).

Personally, I think it's important to have an insurance for this case. I played a risky game for 3 years with 0 insurance for my wife and my kids. I was then strongly relieved when I finally had an insurance. It doesn't cost a lot, and I know that if I'd pass away my family would still be able to live a decent life without ever having to care about where they can get the money to buy food or even holidays.

[Triple7]

Everything is linked to the company and my wife owns some shares, hence everything will go to her. Invoicing can go on as the administrator will take care of that. My wife doesn't have the knowledge to update and maintain the websites. I've written some basic instructions on how she can sell the websites.

I see a sell as the best options. I don't think it's realistic to find some family member to be able to run the whole thing. People that know how to write, maintain, SEO, make deals, are dedicated, etc they run their own websites for sure. Seeing all the hassle regulations and stuff is already for somebody who's daily in the middle of it... I would say, somebody that isn't at all, better goes for safe and take some cash for it. Even if that's not the best price. Best prices you usually get in ideal circumstances and the pilot not behind the wheel is definitely not the best situation.

I also try to invest money in other things, like real estate and terrains. I think it's good to not have everything on the same horse. Especially without jockey, that horse won't come far.

[PROFRBcom]

I agree with Gooner. Write up some sort of operations guide where in you document the steps that you take to check accounts, receive payments, etc. Keep all your passwords written down and locked up in a safe place (safety deposit box for example). Having some friendly affiliates on your team that your spouse could go to for help is also a wonderful idea, and summarizing that agreement in a legally binding document could be a wonderful form of insurance should you pass before your time.

[MMM]

Having some friendly affiliates on your team that your spouse could go to for help is also a wonderful idea, and summarizing that agreement in a legally binding document could be a wonderful form of insurance should you pass before your time.

I think this is the most important part. These days if the site is not updated - it goes down fast. So even just updating the site without any seo/keywords in mind can extend it's life dramatically. i doubt any wife/husband will have the urge to dive into affiliate business (don't forget the situation in which it happnes). So if you wish to extend that somehow limited timeframe, you must have someone who knows how it's done. Doesn't have to be perfect but at least on to some extent.

Imo, the best way is an earnings based contract, that whoever it is will receive certain % of earnings which grows every year up to 50% or whatever.

[Luke Affalliance]

We had a case once when the Affiliate passed away and his business was continued by the close ones. In terms of an affiliate program it shouldn't be an issue to transfer stuff from one owner to another. It would definitely be a wise step to introduce your close ones to the business prior and possible tragedy. As for the domains, TheGooner has a point, limited company should be good enough.

[sweetbet]

It will most likely die with me unless I leave written instructions including usernames and passwords, etc.

[baldidiot]

This has been discussed a couple of times over the years. I'm pretty sure a while back someone discovered a couple of programs that had a termination on event of death clause, although I'm solely speaking from memory so couldn't say who it was.

Some sort of legal entity (ie: a company) is generally the safest option.