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It is often said that death and taxes are the only certainties in life. But if you own a business, there is a third certainty: You will eventually exit from your business. There is no time like the present to begin the planning for this eventual departure.

What should you do to develop a comprehensive and successful succession plan? With the assistance of an experienced exit planner, you should undertake a multi-step process involving all of your financial advisers. The plan should enable you to answer each of the following questions in the affirmative:

Do you know your retirement goals and what it will take – in cash – to reach them?

Do you know how much your business is worth today in cash?

Do you know the best way to increase the income stream generated by your ownership interest?

Do you know how to sell your business to a third party and possibly lower your taxes?

Do you know how to transfer your business to family members, co-owners or employees while lowering taxes and potentially enjoying financial gain?

Do you have a continuity plan for your business if something unexpected happens to you?

Do you have a plan to help secure finances for your family if the unexpected happens to you?

Although asking these questions is easy, answering them affirmatively requires thought and action on your part and the guidance and assistance of an experienced exit planner. Creating and implementing your exit plan may be the most important financial and business decision of your life.

By utilizing a time-proven, structured process, you, along with your exit planner and adviser team, can develop a plan that will enable you to leave your business in style and achieve all the goals reflected in the seven questions above.

Many business people have not taken active steps to transition out of ownership. Again, if you are like many others, the reasons for failing to plan may be: You may have simply been too busy working in your business to plan a transition. You may be unsure of how to begin exit planning, whom to use or even where to begin.

It is generally unwise to wait until you are ready to exit your business to begin the planning process. By putting off the development of an exit plan, you may become ineligible to take advantage of some of the most powerful tax-reduction techniques. You also might lose some of the most advantageous options for enhancing the value of your business, thereby losing significant amounts of money upon exit – and possibly losing the ability to sell the business at all.

David Leitner is an attorney at West Des Moines-based Leitner Law Office.