Simple enough - Currently when your CrewLeader dies and you're a Sponsor with Associates and you accept an invite to a crew, your Associates come with you. I hereby suggest that if your CrewLeader dies, you are no longer a Sponsor. Given the fact that you're no longer in a crew...who exactly are you Sponsoring for? Nobody, that's who!

Pros:

More realistic - you're not Sponsoring shit if you're not in a recognized crew.

Less chance of 'number fuck-ups' - Crew Members: 41 - If a crew has 38 members and takes on a Wise Guy with 2 Associates, it bumps the crew to a higher count than the HQ allows.

Gives the Associates a chance to find work elsewhere without being forced into a Crew?

Cons: Ehhhh... Whatever you guys come up with.

Also seemingly being able to toggle sponsor on and off after a crew leaders death. But that might be one for the bugs thread. Not sure, but connected to the above. 

Kinda torn on this too. I think it's more realistic to keep the sponsor and associate together, after all the associate in reality knows no one really except his sponsor. I can also understand the issue with a crew of 39 recruiting a sponsor with 4 associates.

how about allowing a sponsor to cut associates loose when his CL dies, a kind of 'you're on your own bub' scenario, this could be coupled with either not allowing a sponsor to be recruited if it takes the crew over its maximum member allowance, or penalties to crews that have higher than maximum crew members, such as more frequent crackdowns on DFPs or higher percentage chance of being jailed from a Petty or Felony, essentially saying the larger crew has brought you to the notice of the Feds and cops?

That's something to consider - a "breaking the ties" scenario.

Before a Sponsor can join a new crew after their CL's death, the game forces them to click "Sever your connection with %associate%, which then drops said Associate from any type of 'crewed' or 'sponsored' status.

Perhaps require them to mail the Associate as well and explain what's going on?

On top of this, maybe create a 48 hour tag that gets added to their profile, something along the lines of "Dropped Associate with no CL" - giving them 2 days to find a Family, regardless of their rank, unless they void it? (Shoot at something, PickPocket someone...maybe more???)

I feel like the above would force a little more Sponsor to Associate interaction in these scenarios, as well as provide a basic protection for these members, and it would also stop the over-filling of Crews entirely.