Business Sale Strategies

“My client built a business from the ground up—working 70-hour weeks for many years—until he was approached by a competitor who wanted to buy the company and still employ him. He could give up his management duties, reducing his hours and freeing time to focus on strategy, plus he’d gain a huge infusion of liquidity that he never had before. This would open up a world of possibilities for him, and cement a legacy for his heirs. But first he had to transition his wealth from residing in a closely-held company to being liquid, held within trust with values fluctuating every day.”

Our Advice

We created a ‘lifestyle portfolio’ that balanced tax-free and taxable bonds in a way that maximized after-tax returns, generating the income needed for the client’s desired lifestyle, while allocating the remaining investable assets to a separate, longer-term growth portfolio for heirs. To hold illiquid real estate and closely-held investments, we created a trust for the family that would protect those assets from litigation and later transfer the assets to the next generation at discounted values creating tremendous future tax savings. Prior to the sale, we helped restructure the client’s life insurance—held by the business—moving the policies into various trusts.

Interested in learning more about business sale strategies? View our additional resources and get a free copy of John Waldron’s “The Entrepreneurial Journey” below.