Business Owners & Executives

Common tendencies we see in this stage:

• Time constraints! When focused on building a business, who has time to properly manage a financial strategy, much less a portfolio, and keep up with tax law changes, and estate law changes, and retirement plan nuances, and, and, and… Turns out very few business owners do.

• You are an expert in your thing, not in everything. The best business owners we’ve seen got there by knowing exactly where to focus their efforts and how to avoid distraction.

• A hodge-podge of pieces results in a sub-optimal, non-coordinated personal financial strategy. Business owners in the building/growing phase often have too many more pressing things to manage.

How we help:

• Collaboration with Trusted Advisors in Tax, Legal, Insurance, and Banking

• Quantitative measurement of business health and optimization through analysis of key elements including: employee benefits, current valuation vs. best in class, identify inefficiency, mitigate risk, and optimize financial performance

• Advance planning for potential future exit on your own terms and time

• Personal financial planning in a low time commitment way, that builds independent wealth both inside and outside the business

• The right tools for the job. Optimization of tax strategy, investing strategy, estate planning strategy which combine togther to provide peace of mind

• Corporate cash management

Common tendencies we see in this stage:

• We see so many owners who want to exit their business either now or in the future but have no idea what their options are, where to start, or if the business is even attractive relative to best-in-class performers.

• We also see far too many Owners who have neglected personal financial planning to focus mostly on the business. Too many owners have no idea how much they need to receive in an exit to live sustainably for the rest of their life. This is called the ‘Personal Wealth Gap.’ If a gap is wide, it can be dangerous (unless you want to exit your business only to have to go get a job).

• Many owners have no idea what their lifestyle will cost post-exit, as they have never had much free time to test life out.

• Too many Owners have little to no idea what the tax implications of their exit will be. It’s the lottery problem - the figure you sell for is not the figure that lands in your bank.

How we help:

• Formation of professional team of Advisors and subject matter experts

• Determine realistic enterprise value

• Develop plan of action to identify and solve for any valuation improvements

• Creation of a customized personal financial plan and strategy for you and your family

• Development of investment strategy for both pre and post-transition

• Analysis of tax mitigation opportunities

• Sustainable income strategy

• Guidance around negotiating exit terms

Common tendencies we see in this stage:

• Congratulations! You’ve made it. However most Business Owners didn’t reach this point, only to want to take on a second career managing their financial strategy. We find most owners now want to enjoy life on the golf course, beach, boat, or spending time with loved ones, not starting a 2nd career.

• Expertise gaps. Most business owners didn’t build a business in the financial markets. In fact, most Owners have made it to this point without ever devoting much time to learning about financial markets, tax nuance, estate laws, etc. Now with so much on the line, the cost of making mistakes is significantly higher.

• The ROI on your time. We can promise you our management fee won’t ever deplete your retirement savings, but we can’t promise your retirement savings won’t deplete without being strategically managed.

How we help:

• Oversight and management of your customized investment strategy

• Monitor and adjust the family's financial strategy in light of economic changes, tax law changes, and estate law changes

• Multi-generational financial literacy and understanding of the family's financial strategy across generations

• Provide stable, predictable income stream to last until end of life via a prudent spend-down strategy

• Continued tax mitigation throughout retirement

• Plan in place to financially care for surviving spouse and family members

• Guidance around life change including relocation, second home, and non-traditional investments

• Charitable gifting strategy

Plan sponsors, we’re here for you. We offer full service retirement plan management including employee financial literacy education and retirement readiness improvement. We can come alongside you as a 3(21) or 3(38) Fiduciary and bring our low cost, Fiduciary approach to your benefits program.

We estimate that well more than half of all retirement plans under $25,000,000 in plan assets are overpaying the current plan Advisor to underdeliver on the service being provided.

We can help. To learn more contact us here.

Attention small business owners! If you have fewer than 50 employees and do not have a dedicated CFO or Controller level team member, there is a good chance your financial organization and optimization could be dramatically improved.

Our Outsourced CFO program delivers professional bookkeeping, financial reporting including cashflow projection, runway analysis, controller level reporting, direct liasion to your current CPA, payroll (if needed) along with a full suite of business guidance services such as snapshot valuation, evaluation of banking, lending, insurance, and legal setups, buy/sell agreement and key man funding, and corporate cash management.

Utilizing the toolbox provided by both EOS and the Exit Planning Institute, our Advisor team is prepared to help you position your business for an optimal sale.

Most owners do not engage an Advisor until post-sale and by then the only work left to do is manage the investments. This is a shame because there is so much more that a pro-active Financial Advisor with a specialized discipline can do to help Owners achieve an optimal sale! Find out what we mean.

Business Owners and Executives need a different level and sophistication than most people. We take risks differently, often get paid differently, and evaluate the long term through a different set of goals. This type of thinking requires a different approach to planning.

In addition to the need for personal wealth gap understanding and unique tax considerations that often come along with ownership, Owners need to plan for the long haul differently. This means as Financial Advisors, we need to work differently with you to plan for unknown future possibilities, understand the pros and cons of different exit strategies, and navigate the unique tax and estate challenges that many business owners face. We’ve been doing customized planning for Owners and Executives from the get go. If you feel like your situation could use a customized lens, contact us here today.