Ownership moves to family members by sale or gift as part of succession planning.
A family transfer moves ownership of the company to a spouse, child, or other family member. The transfer can be a sale, a gift, or a mix of both. Many family transfers use estate planning, a seller note, or a gradual buy-in.
When money changes hands, Day Zero and Aha Planner score the deal as a financial sale. The buyer is internal. The price still follows cash flow and valuation, the way a financial buyer prices a company. A gift with no purchase is succession planning, not a scored sale.
Ownership stays in the family. Employee ownership is a different path. It puts ownership in a trust or a co-op for eligible employees. The National Center for Employee Ownership lists family succession as a separate choice from selling to employees.
A family member can keep running the company after an employee-ownership sale. That hybrid leaves the path names the same. Employee ownership still means the workforce owns the company.