Transition planning that begins years before the event — so when the offer comes, what's supposed to be your retirement actually is.
We've watched it play out the same way more than once. An offer comes in — larger than expected. The owner accepts. And then half of it vanishes to taxes nobody modeled. What was supposed to be retirement is suddenly insufficient.
By the time the letter of intent hits the table, 80% of the outcome is already determined — by years of decisions about valuation drivers, balance-sheet separation, tax positioning, and successor readiness.
The negotiation didn't fail. The five years before it did. That's the window we work in — and it's why exit planning is the work most advisors won't touch.
Walt Brozek built a precision-machining shop into a national supplier, then asked five words: “Can you review our 401(k)?” Inside that plan was the story — a founder with one of the smallest balances in his own company, because the business had been his retirement account for three decades. No successor. A compliance clock he’d never heard of. The fix was never finding a buyer; it was readiness — real salaries, clean books, durable contracts where there’d been month-to-month work. He meant to sell to his employees. Two years later, a private-equity firm bought the company for several times what the unready version could have commanded — and he kept the land beneath it. Decided in the years before the offer, not at the table.
That’s Walt’s story. Read the case →
An honest assessment of where you stand today — what the business is actually worth, what's driving (and capping) that value, and how ready you really are to transition out.
Multi-year strategy so the proceeds clear at the number you keep, not the number on the term sheet. Coordinated with your CPA across entities and years — not improvised at closing.
Untangling personal and business wealth so the family's future doesn't ride entirely on a clean sale — and so you're not exposed if the deal slips.
A written plan for what the money does after the sale — how much you actually need, how it's invested, and how it funds the life you want next.
The part most advisors skip: what you do when the business is gone. We design for the identity transition, not just the asset transition — so you're not "swinging by" the old HQ a year later.
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Start with a conversation. Thirty minutes, no obligation, no pitch — just an honest look at where you are and where you want to go.
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