SAVE tax by dying before you sell your business! That was the tongue-in-cheek message at a seminar on succession planning run by accountants BDO Stoy Hayward and law firm Clarkson Wright and Jakes.

Speaking at The Thistle Hotel, Brands Hatch, CWJ partner Amanda Custis said that from a tax angle, death was "quite a good strategy”. In most cases, there was no capital gains tax and no inheritance tax.

It was important to have a will in place that did not conflict with the firm's memorandum and articles, or any partnership/shareholder agreement.

It was also important to appoint an executor. But she did not think it wise for a husband to appoint his wife.

"Is she capable of running the business? If she's the only executor, it will be her job and having just lost you, she may or may not wish to carry on running the business."

It was much better, she said, to appoint a person connected with the business. Ms Custis added: "Even if you decide you want to go on until you drop and then be carried out of your office feet first, you must still plan the succession.

"The people that are going to run the business when you're gone need to know who they are, they need to be involved.

"If you suddenly are no longer on the scene, suppliers and customers will be sympathetic for about a week and then if the business looks as though it's still floundering, people will go elsewhere."

Bosses should also consider what would happen if the "car crash or heart attack" did not kill them but made them unable to run the business. It was important to plan early and sign an enduring power of attorney. Otherwise, the bereaved could face a slow, bureaucratic and expensive legal process.

Richard Lane, a partner with BDO Stoy Hayward, told the audience: "Very few businesses have taken seriously the question of succession and many leave it until it's too late to make proper provision."