Estate Planning for Pharmacy Owners in Georgia

By Brad MacLiver
Authorship and profile at Google


With the current market conditions many GA pharmacy owners are experiencing lower profit margins and have considered selling. A pharmacy industry roll-up has been occurring for a number of years, consolidating the pharmacy seller’s customer traffic into fewer pharmacy locations. However, there are a number of pharmacies that are not in a geographic location with other nearby Georgia pharmacies, so consolidation can’t take place. Some pharmacy and drug store owners, despite where they are located or what is happening in the industry, have taken a stance and won’t consider selling. However, just like paying taxes, an exit of the business, is eventually inevitable.

Estate Planning is a topic many people, in all industries, shy away from. For the pharmacy owner who works 6 days a week, takes very few vacations, fills scripts all day, then mops the floor and does the books at night, there usually isn’t much time to consider additional things such as estate planning. However, knowing that there will eventually be a transfer of the business, it is important for the Georgia pharmacy owner to consider a proper succession plan for the pharmacy business.

Developing a plan to transfer the business will be time consuming, but done correctly will allow the business to be successfully transferred in an acceptable manner. An estate plan for a pharmacy owner in GA does not need to be changeless process. Fine-tuning, updating, and amendments are recommended as government regulations, economic conditions, and personal expectations change.

Estate planning allows a pharmacy owner to anticipate and arrange for the transfer of the drug store. The plan will be formatted in attempts to eliminate uncertainties, assist the transfer by trimming expenses, and reduce taxes.

The process may involve Trusts, Wills, Living Wills, Power of Attorney, Medical Power of Attorney, Business Valuations, Life Insurance, Charitable Remainder Trusts, Buy-Sell Agreements, and other legal documents. All of the different aspects of the estate planning are to provide the Georgia pharmacy owners coordinated directives.

When there are non-family members as partners in the drug store business, it is essential that the estate planning incorporate a Buy-Sell Agreement. A buy-sell agreement, governs the transfer of the business between pharmacy partners. The agreement may also be known as a partner buyout agreement, or a business will. To help protect the family in the event of a partner’s death, the buy-sell agreement may be funded with a life insurance policy.

Estate planning, buy-sell agreements, and the transfer of the GA pharmacy should involve a pharmacy business valuation performed by a third party that is an expert in the pharmacy industry, completes a large number of Georgia pharmacy business valuations each year, and has up-to-date industry data as a basis for their conclusions. Applying simple accounting formulas/multipliers and relying on valuators inexperienced in pharmacy does not provide an accurate business valuation.

Most pharmacy owners in Georgia will spend a large portion of their life building the business. Those efforts should not be undone because the pharmacy owner refuses to accept their mortality and plan accordingly. In some small pharmacies, the only pharmacist is the owner, and if their scripts can’t be filled by a licensed pharmacist then, by law, the customer files a required to be transferred to another pharmacy.  The pharmacy’s business value may drop to a negligible figure within just a few days after the passing of the owner because of this. The contingencies outlined in an estate plan should address this issue. Each year, unfortunately, because effective plans are not in place, many GA pharmacy owners die and their family is stuck with an asset with very little value.

Tips When Planning an Estate:
1. If the family drug store is the sole means of income for several family members, it is even more vital to have a succession plan in place.
2. Disputes can be avoided if estate plans are developed with clear directives.
3. Minimizing tax liabilities is a major objective for most completing an estate plan, therefore expert tax advice should be sought.
4. Many on-line documents and books are available that provide advice and documents for developing an estate plan. When going the self-help route, it is advisable to have a paid expert review the completed documentation to ensure that it can be legally complied with when the time comes.
5. While developing the estate plan it is essential to talk with children and other family members of the pharmacy owner in Georgia especially if there are some family that work in the business and others that don’t.