When is the right time for succession?

Almost no business wakes up one morning facing the question of succession. It announces itself over years — in thoughts pushed aside, in investments postponed, in the realisation that one's own energy is no longer what it was ten years ago.

A good first test is a simple question: would I still invest today as if I had twenty years ahead of me? Those who hesitate usually already have an answer inside — and should start taking it seriously.

A handover takes time — for trust, for the handover itself, for keeping the team and the customers. Those who have that time can choose: the right partner, the right form, the right pace.

Those who do not — because illness, age or exhaustion force the decision — negotiate under pressure. And pressure is the worst adviser for the most important decision of an entrepreneurial life.

Recognising the moment commits you to nothing. It only means taking the topic out of the drawer and discussing it with someone who listens before they calculate.

That is exactly the point of the succession page: not a quick deal, but a path that suits the business — with the explicit assurance that the name and the team stay.

The most telling figure sits in the KfW study and is rarely quoted: those seeking a handover in the short term — by the end of 2026 — are on average already 66.5 years old, a good year older than in the previous survey. That is above the statutory retirement age. For many, the lead time is not short. It is already spent.

The chambers of industry and commerce observe the same pattern: three quarters of the companies they counsel come forward only two years or less before the intended handover. In advisory practice, 38 per cent of departing owners count as poorly prepared because they started too late. The chambers themselves recommend three to ten years of lead time — a recommendation of the chamber organisation, not a measured average.

How far practice is from that shows in another figure: only 26 per cent of companies planning a handover had found anyone at all by 2025. Negotiations were concluded at 14 per cent and still running at 12 per cent. KfW expressly rates this as barely changed on the previous year.

For short-term plans, KfW expects around 14 per cent to fail and delays at a further 21 per cent. An important qualification: this is not a measured failure rate but an inference from how far planning has progressed — some had not entered the process at all, others had so far only gathered information.

KfW Research, Fokus Volkswirtschaft No. 526: Nachfolge-Monitoring Mittelstand 2025, published 9 January 2026, surveyed spring 2025 on the basis of the KfW Mittelstandspanel.

DIHK, Report Unternehmensnachfolge 2025, published 2025 on the basis of chamber advisory statistics for 2024.