Ownership transitions are frequently framed as a tax and structuring exercise. In practice, the binding constraint is management depth.
Succession planning tends to begin with structure, because structure is the part with deadlines and advisers attached. Holding companies are formed, shares are transferred, and the family concludes that the matter has been addressed.
The part that determines the outcome is whether the business can be run by people other than the person leaving. That is an operating question and it takes years to answer well.
Practically, it means identifying the two or three roles on which the company genuinely depends, ensuring each has a credible internal or external successor, and giving those successors real authority long before the transition.
Where that work is done, the structuring is straightforward. Where it is not, no amount of structuring protects the value that was being transferred.