Financial Planning for Every Stage of Your Business.
Whether you are launching a venture, scaling an established company, or preparing for a sale or succession, your business and personal finances are inseparable. We help you plan for both.
Every business owner faces the same fundamental challenge: the company is not just a source of income, it is the center of gravity for your entire financial life. Your retirement timeline, your family's financial priorities, your tax exposure, and your long-term wealth all depend on decisions you make inside and around the business. Many financial advisors only engage after a liquidity event. We believe the planning should start long before that. From early-stage cash flow strategy through growth-phase executive compensation and eventually to exit or succession, we serve business owners at every stage with a disciplined planning process and a coordinated advisory approach.
How We Work With Business Owners
Early-Stage Financial Strategy
Starting a business means making financial decisions with long-term consequences under short-term pressure. We help founders and early-stage owners build a personal financial foundation alongside the business: structuring compensation, establishing retirement vehicles, managing cash reserves, and assessing whether your personal risk exposure is appropriate for the venture you are building.
Growth-Phase Wealth Coordination
As revenue grows, the financial complexity grows with it. Executive compensation strategy, key-person insurance, buy-sell agreements, deferred compensation arrangements, and the interplay between business reinvestment and personal wealth accumulation all require deliberate coordination. We work alongside your CPA and attorney to help evaluate and align these decisions so they take into account both the company's objectives and your personal financial plan.
Pre-Transaction Planning
The decisions you make before a sale or transition often have a significant impact on outcomes beyond the deal price itself. We coordinate with your advisory team on entity restructuring considerations, charitable strategies, installment structures, and other approaches designed to help preserve more of the proceeds. This planning window is finite, and the strategies available today may not be available once a letter of intent is signed.
Exit and Sale Coordination
The period between a letter of intent and closing is when financial decisions compound fastest. We stay beside you through the entire process, working closely with your M&A attorney and CPA on the financial and wealth-planning implications of the deal structure. Our role is provide perspective and planning support, so decisions are made thoughtfully rather than reactively during a high‑pressure period.
Post-Exit Wealth Management
The day after a sale closes, the entire financial equation changes. Concentrated liquidity needs a clear investment strategy, not a default to whatever the bank recommends. We build comprehensive post-exit plans that include diversified portfolio construction, income planning, tax-efficient investing, and legacy strategy so your proceeds are positioned thoughtfully for long term objectives.
Family Succession and Transition
Not every transition is a sale. Family successions involve their own set of considerations: next-generation leadership, minority buyouts, estate equalization between business and non-business heirs, and the financial planning dimensions that support continuity for both the business and the family. We advise on the wealth management and planning considerations of these transitions in coordination with your estate attorney.
“The difference between a well-planned exit and a poorly planned one is not just the sale price. It is what happens next.”
We walk beside business owners from startup through succession and beyond.
Ben Minifie, Financial Advisor, Tierney Wealth
