Tag: Coordination-Series-4

The Coordination Series · Part 4 of 5

It’s common for business owners to treat “tax planning” and “wealth planning” as two separate conversations with two separate people: one who structures the deal, and one who manages what’s left afterward. We usually recommend the opposite. They’re really one conversation, because the two inform each other. That conversation can happen with one integrated advisor, or with an owner’s CPA and wealth advisor working from the same set of numbers. What matters is that it happens together.

Two Advisors, Two Blind Spots:

A tax advisor optimizing purely for the deal will chase the structure that minimizes tax on the sale: asset versus stock, purchase price allocation, installment payments, rollover equity into the buyer’s new entity. These decisions matter, but in a vacuum they fail to answer a critical question: are the proceeds remaining after the transaction enough for the owner to move on to the next phase of their life? That phase could be retirement, with enough to maintain their lifestyle or provide for future generations. Or it could be capital to provide some security while they plan their next business venture.

A wealth advisor working from the other direction often builds a retirement plan primarily around a valuation provided by the owner, with no view into either the corporate structure or the contemplated tax structure for the sale. With only half the story, they may not know which pre-sale estate planning vehicles, which can meaningfully reduce estate tax, could be applied to this deal. And if an owner waits until a buyer is at the table, it may be too late for the advisor to put them to work. The retirement plan built with only half the story can start to come up short.

Neither advisor is wrong. They’re just answering half the question. A deal structure that minimizes tax but leaves an owner short of “enough” isn’t a good outcome. Neither is the reverse: a retirement plan built around a sale price that was never achievable, or around a tax treatment that could never be applied.

What Integrated Planning Actually Looks Like

An advisor or team that sees both sides at once models deal-specific tax structuring against the owner’s personal financial picture. That’s the best way to know whether a given structure actually gets an owner to “enough,” rather than just minimizing a tax bill in isolation. Some of the most valuable moves benefit from years of lead time, no matter who is advising: transferring ownership interests to family trusts, contributing business interests to charitable vehicles well before a sale is legally binding, or changing the business’s entity type where it makes sense. Which moves make sense depends on how the business is organized, which is one more reason to start the conversation early.

BPCA encourages owners to surround themselves with professionals who can support them along the entire continuum, from pre-sale estate planning through post-sale retirement. Working alongside an owner’s wealth advisor, we can provide a market-based view of value to model against, before a letter of intent (LOI) exists. That can happen before any estate planning has taken place (alongside a formal independent appraisal), or as an annual check-in to see how the market has moved and whether the plan needs adjusting.

Even the best planning depends on a well-run process. The next post is about the advisor who protects the deal from the LOI negotiation through closing: M&A counsel.

Next: Spend the Ten Weeks on What Matters.