How is a Second Chair™ engagement agreed and paid?

A Second Chair™ engagement is agreed in writing after the private conversation, once both sides have decided the work is a fit. The agreement can be signed by whoever engages Second Chair™: the parent, the company or the successor. Nikola signs every agreement himself. The fee is invoiced in full once the private diagnostic is complete and paid by bank transfer, either by the family or as an invoice to the company. Card payments are not accepted, and there is no guarantee and no refund.

That is the short version. The rest of this article walks through the order of things, because families who are new to this kind of engagement often want to know what happens between “this sounds right” and the first weekly session.

What happens before anything is signed?

Nothing is signed on the strength of a form. The order is:

1. The request. A short form on the site. Nikola reads every request himself.
2. A reply. Where there is a fit, a personal email within three business days, with a link to arrange a private conversation.
3. The private conversation. The family asks anything: how the six months work, what the parent hears, confidentiality, price and what is not included. Both sides decide whether to go ahead. The first conversation with Second Chair™ describes it in detail.
4. The agreement. Only then is anything put in writing.

A family can stop at any point before step four without owing anything and without explaining why. How Second Chair™ decides whether a family is a fit covers the questions that come up on the way.

Who signs the agreement?

Whoever is engaging the work. In practice that is usually one of three:

• The parent, when the family is paying personally.
• The company, through whoever is authorised to sign for it, when the business is paying.
• The successor, when they are engaging the coaching themselves.

Any of these works. Second Chair™ does not require a particular signatory, and the program is the same whoever signs. Nikola signs on the other side in every case. There is no account manager or sales team between the family and the person doing the work.

What matters more than the signature is that the people who need to know have agreed. If the company is paying, that may mean the board or the chair. If other shareholders or siblings are involved, it may mean telling them first. Can the company pay for successor coaching? sets out the governance questions worth settling before the invoice arrives.

Does the payer become the client?

No. Whoever signs and whoever pays, the client is the successor. That point is written down at the start, because the person paying often expects to hear more than the arrangement allows.

The parent has a private intake in week one, a summary of the diagnostic in week two, a thirty-minute briefing each month and a written closing report at the end of the six months. What the successor says in sessions stays between coach and successor. What the parent sees during successor coaching explains the boundary.

When is the fee paid?

The engagement begins with the private diagnostic in the first two weeks: the two intakes, the stakeholder interviews and the recorded baseline. What happens in the private diagnostic describes it.

The fee is invoiced in full once the diagnostic is complete. By then the family has met the work, not only heard it described, and both sides have a written picture of where the successor stands and what success looks like at month six.

There are no instalments and no payment plan. One invoice covers the six months.

How is it paid?

By bank transfer. Two routes are common:

• The family pays from a personal or family account.
• The company pays against an invoice addressed to the business.

Card payments are not accepted. For a fee of this size, a bank transfer is simpler for both sides and is how most families already settle professional fees.

How the fee is treated for tax or accounting purposes, particularly when the company pays for a family member’s development, is a question for the company’s accountant and tax adviser. Second Chair™ does not give tax, legal or investment advice.

What does the fee cover?

Engagements begin at $50,000 for the six-month program. That covers the private diagnostic, 24 weekly one-to-one sessions built around the successor’s real calendar, short rehearsals before high-stakes events, voice-note feedback between sessions, the monthly parent briefings, the recorded baseline repeated at the end, and the facilitated handover session in month six. How much does successor coaching cost? compares it with other options.

There is no guarantee and no refund. Second Chair™ commits to the work, not to an outcome that depends on a board, a market and a family. What results to expect from successor coaching explains what can and cannot be promised.

What is settled in writing?

Before the weekly sessions begin, the family and Second Chair™ have in writing:

• Who the client is, and who is paying.
• What the parent hears, and what stays with the successor.
• Confidentiality. Every engagement begins under a mutual NDA. What the Second Chair™ NDA covers sets out what it protects.
• The fee and how it is paid.

Families are welcome to have their own lawyer review the agreement and the NDA before signing.

In short

• Nothing is signed until after the private conversation, when both sides have decided the work is a fit.
• The parent, the company or the successor can sign. Nikola signs every agreement himself.
• The fee is invoiced in full once the private diagnostic is complete.
• Payment is by bank transfer, from the family or against an invoice to the company. No cards, no instalments, no refunds.
• Whoever pays, the successor is the client.