when a sole proprietor dies a key employee may be designated as the buyer or successor 
partners should work with both an attorney and a certified public accountant when crafting a buy and sell agreement along with a life insurance professional key considerations in buy sell agreementsbuy and sell agreements are designed to help partners manage potentially difficult situations in ways that protect the business and their own personal and family interests for example the agreement can restrict owners from selling their interests to outside investors without approval from the remaining owners similar protection can be provided in the event of a partner s death a typical agreement might stipulate that a deceased partner s interest be sold back to the business or remaining owners this prevents the estate from selling the interest to an outsider in addition to controlling ownership of the business buy and sell agreements spell out the means to be used in assessing the value of a partner s share this can have uses outside the question of buying and selling shares for example if there is a dispute among owners about the value of the company or of a partner s interest the valuation methods included in the buy and sell agreement would be used there are several online resources that offer low cost or free templates for drawing up a buy sell agreement which can be especially useful for new or small companies as your business grows or if it has a large number of partners from the onset it is better to have a lawyer draft the document 