Turning Business Success into Personal Wealth

You’ve made it to an Exit… Now what?

Building a strong business and guiding it successfully through a financial exit is one of the most important steps to securing your financial future. Dealing with that newfound wealth is a nice challenge to have. But it’s still a challenge. Planning early for what comes next is the best way to maximize returns and make sure that your money lasts.

The need for succession planning and a smooth exit from your business is now immediate and somewhat daunting. Do you have family members ready and able to take over? Are you going to walk away or stay involved in a smaller capacity?  Are you unsure of the financial implications of your business exit? Ideally, there will be a transition period during which you will gradually hand over control, but this process is far from easy. Questions abound.

The Pillar Wealth Difference

We were brought in by an M&A to sit down with an entrepreneur who was selling his business. He wondered if the sales price would be enough for him to retire. How much tax would the sale generate? How he would draw an income? For years, the only income he had known was from the business. He enjoyed his lifestyle and did not want it to change.

We explained how transitioning to retirement is a different mindset. No longer would he log into the computer to read about building the next widget, the company sales from the previous day, the management reports, or the marketing projections. Now he would be logging into travel websites to plan the next vacation.

He needed to understand what money meant to him. As we discussed this with him, he was able to identify what he wanted from life during his retirement. Based on this, we could prepare a Wealth Management Analysis. It accounted for the projected income flows and taxes over the next four years from the business sale and then for the outflows from hobbies and travel.