Most of your net worth is tied up in the business you run. Exit planning converts it on your timeline rather than someone else's, and confirms the agreement governing it still says what you think it says.
Request a buy-sell planning reviewThe business decision and the personal one, together: what the company is worth, what your buy-sell obligates you and your partners to do, which exit path fits, how the deal is structured, and whether the after-tax proceeds fund the life you intend afterward. Owners usually have an advisor for each piece separately. The gaps show up between them.
Your buy-sell agreement. It controls what happens on death, disability, divorce, or a partner's departure, and many of the ones we read were drafted years ago and never revisited.
A current valuation. The buy-sell price, your retirement projection, and nearly every other decision depend on a number many owners are estimating from memory.
Roughly in this order. Valuation and the buy-sell come first because everything downstream depends on them.
A number for internal planning, one defensible for estate purposes, and one a buyer will underwrite are not the same number. We coordinate the right engagement with a credentialed valuation professional and translate the result into your plan. We do not perform formal business appraisals.
Who must buy, who must sell, what triggers it, and how the price is set. We read the agreement alongside your attorney and flag the common failures: a stale fixed price, a formula that no longer fits the business, missing triggers like disability or divorce, and funding that was never put in place.
An unfunded agreement is an obligation between people whose interests diverge at the worst possible moment. Life insurance, disability buyout coverage, an installment note, or reserved cash each carry different tax and cash-flow consequences, and the structure of the agreement determines which are even available.
Third-party sale, ESOP, management buyout, or transfer to the next generation. Each carries different proceeds, timelines, tax treatment, and a very different answer to what happens to your employees. We work with ESOPs regularly, so we can evaluate that path honestly rather than avoid it.
Assets or stock, how the price is allocated, and whether payments are spread over time. Structure can move the after-tax result more than the headline price does. The analysis belongs with your CPA and transaction attorney, and we make sure it happens before terms are agreed rather than after.
The day after closing you hold cash instead of a company, and the problem inverts from concentration to deployment. Charitable strategies generally need to be in place before a letter of intent. Income planning, estate documents, and beneficiary designations all change when the balance sheet does.
Coordinated planning for Kansas City business owners, ESOP participants, and families. The exit is one event in a longer plan, not a transaction to be closed and forgotten.
Four phases, each producing written output you and your other advisors can work from.
Buy-sell, operating or shareholder agreement, existing insurance, recent financials, and any prior valuation. We document what the agreements currently require.
Where the agreement, the funding, and the valuation disagree with each other or with your intentions, written up including the items that need your attorney.
Exit options modeled on after-tax proceeds and timeline, with a personal projection showing what each outcome funds.
Valuation and buy-sell revisited on a set schedule, because the business changes, the partners change, and the tax law changes.
A document review and a current valuation are a straightforward place to start, and they usually surface something worth knowing.
Request a buy-sell planning review