A recent meeting regarding succession planning with an owner of a closely held business resulted in a surprise twist in the conversation: his daughter, who the business owner intended to take over his role and ownership interest, had accepted a marriage proposal. Worse, she planned to tie the knot on Valentine’s Day, less than a month away.

The business owner further revealed that he was chagrined; he felt that his future son-in-law was a charlatan and perhaps the marriage was an artifice toward undeserved wealth. As such, the business owner was considering other options, such as looking outside the family for a new CEO, placing title to the company in some form of trust, or calling his “guy” in the city to “take care of it.”