We provide small to mid-size business owners with a strong partner, including Certified Exit Planning Advisors, (CEPA®), who not only understand your journey, but also have resources to support your business planning, growth, and eventual transition or exit strategy.
How We Support Business Owners Like You
Business ownership can be an exciting and rewarding experience with the right support.
Create a Comprehensive, Personal Financial Plan
We work with business owners to develop financial plans that consider both personal and business goals. We help owners assess their current situation from multiple angles, develop strategies for growth and to manage risk, and align their personal and business finances to enable overall financial health.
Develop a Succession Plan
As most business owners know, planning for the future of a business is crucial, whether you intend to pass it on to family members, sell it, or have a planned exit strategy. We work with you, and often your CPA and Corporate Attorney, to develop a succession plan that facilitates the right transition for you.
Tax Planning & Optimization
Business owners face unique tax considerations. We work with business owners and their CPA or accountant to develop tax strategies that minimize tax liabilities. We provide guidance on tax-efficient investment strategies and develop options for retirement and employee benefit plans.
Risk Management & Insurance
Business ownership can sometimes feel like it is fraught with risk and there is a need to protect personal and business assets from unforeseen events. We assist you in thinking through your insurance needs, such as business interruption, liability, and key person insurance.
STAGE 1
Pre-Business Origination
Even before you have a business up and running, we should talk about two key things:
Business Structure & Funding: We have experience helping owners think about their business structure and the pros and cons of a sole proprietorship vs. partnership vs. corporation, etc. We can also review your business plan from a financial perspective and help you think through a funding strategy.
Personal Financial Planning: Reviewing the impact of business ownership on your own financial plan, especially if you have a family, is a crucial step. We will look at budgeting, managing personal debt, and ensuring you have a financial safety net in place.
STAGE 2
Business Growth & Operations
As your business gains footing, you have hired more employees, and are positioned for growth, we focus primarily on the following:
Risk Management - We help you identify and manage various business risks, such as insurance coverage, contingency planning, and implementing risk mitigation strategies. Asset protection strategies to safeguard your personal and business assets are also important at this stage. Specific things to prepare for include death, disability, divorce, and disagreements (between owners, with employees, vendors, clients, etc.)
Employee Benefits & Retirement Planning - We work with business owners, and their leadership teams when appropriate, to design and implement employee benefit programs, such as 401(k), SEP IRA, Cash Balance Plans, and/or Defined Benefit Plans.
Succession Planning - Determining the value of your business year over year will help you determine what elements of the business to focus on to accelerate business value. You can build value by increasing your cash flow (EBITDA) and/or improving your multiple.
STAGE 3
Business Exit
Long before an owner is ready (are we ever ready?) to transition a business, we recommend they build out the following, which we can help you with.
Success Plan: Building an effective succession plan is a team effort, and our role is to assist you and work in alignment with your CPA/accountant and business attorney. The development of a succession plan smooths the transition of the business to the next generation or a new owner. Together, we help the owner evaluate the business’s value, structure the sale or transfer, and optimize tax implications. We also help facilitate family conversations around the transition, especially if other family members are involved.
Estate Planning: While an estate planning attorney drives the development of your estate plan, we help ensure the smooth transfer of business and personal assets, align beneficiaries, minimize taxes, and provide for family and charitable intentions.
Financial Independence Planning: This step often includes the business owner and their significant other(s). It can be emotional, bringing up new aspirations, but also fears and concerns about how best to manage the money going forward. And, for you as an owner, there may be deep emotional/personal connections to the business that need attention. Where will you place your mental, physical, and/or emotional horsepower once you no longer work within the business?
Note that through our custodian, Raymond James, we have access to world-class resources for all aspects of these transactions. This includes investment banking, mergers and acquisitions, lending, risk management, etc.
Blogs & Podcasts on Business Planning
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Read More*Please Note: Limitations. The scope of any financial planning and consulting services to be provided depends upon the terms of the engagement, and the specific requests and needs of the client. Stephens Wealth Management Group does not serve as an attorney, accountant, or insurance agent. Stephens Wealth Management Group does not prepare legal documents.
If the client engages us to do so, Stephens Wealth Management Group can provide tax preparation services as discussed in Stephens Wealth Management Group’s written disclosure Brochure (a copy of which is linked to this web site) per the terms and conditions of a separate engagement and fee.
If the client desires, one of Stephens Wealth Management Group’s representatives, in their separate licensed individual capacities, can be engaged to provide insurance sa