This work explained what succession planning is and the role it plays in granting competitive advantage to Family Owned Business (FOB) that implement it. FOBs are business entities that have ties with family, as many big corporations today started as FOBs. It is ubiquitous and a very old businesses form, but is survival rate is not encouraging as statistics reveals. Hence, this work looked at how the principles of succession planning can be used to perpetuate the existing of FOBs by giving them a sustainable competitive edge. Succession planning deals with making plans for when the founders/owners of such businesses are no longer around. This study examined the challenges facing succession planning in FOBS and reasons for succession management in businesses. Five works were empirically examined to see how they did their studies and their findings. The work concluded that to look at the sustainability of FOBs and their competitive advantage thereof, the issue of success planning is key. Following the conclusion, the study recommended among others that succession planning should not be left in the hands of businesses alone, seeing that these businesses are major economic players, the government needs to take a lead role in educating and ensuring they have succession plans in place.