WealthWhile® · Building & Selling a Business

You built something extraordinary.
The financial planning should match it.

A business sale is the most consequential financial event of most owners’ lives. The three years before the transaction , and the first year after , determine more than the deal itself. We have guided owners through this process for four decades.

Who we serve

Building & Selling a Business
High-Income Professionals
Navigating a Major Transition
Multigenerational Families

Most business owners spend years preparing the company for sale. Very few spend the same energy preparing their personal finances. The cost of that gap is measured in opportunities that cannot be recovered once the wire hits.

The specific challenges

What makes your situation genuinely different

The concentration problem

For most of your career, your wealth has been concentrated in a single illiquid asset , your company. Until a transaction occurs, diversification is not possible. But the planning that determines how much you keep after the sale needs to begin long before the transaction, not after it.

The pre-sale planning window

Estate freeze structures, charitable giving strategies, Roth conversion opportunities, and key employee retention arrangements must all be in place well before a buyer is identified. Planning done in the shadow of a known transaction attracts IRS scrutiny and loses its effectiveness.

The coordination gap

Your transaction attorney is focused on the deal. Your CPA is focused on the return. Your estate attorney is focused on documents. Without someone coordinating across all of these disciplines, significant planning opportunities fall through the cracks between advisors.

The day-after question

Most owners have not seriously answered the question of what their life looks like after the sale closes. That question has direct financial implications , for income planning, for investment strategy, for how quickly to act with proceeds. Answering it before the transaction, not after, changes what is possible.

The WealthWhile® response

How we address what you’re facing

Our WealthWhile® approach coordinates every dimension of your financial life around what matters most to you.

01

Pre-sale planning

Three to five years before the event

We build the structures , estate planning vehicles, charitable strategies, key employee retention, Roth conversion planning , that are only effective when established well ahead of a known transaction. Early engagement is not cautious. It is the difference between full optionality and none.

02

Transaction coordination

Working alongside your deal team

We coordinate with your investment banker, transaction attorney, and CPA throughout the process , ensuring your personal financial planning is aligned with the deal structure as it evolves, not managed separately from it.

03

Proceeds planning

The first 90 days after close

The financial decisions made in the immediate aftermath of a sale deserve the same care as the transaction itself. We help you move deliberately , not reactively , with investment strategy, tax planning, and charitable giving in the high-income year of the event.

04

The next chapter

Defining what comes after

We work with owners to answer the question that the transaction never answers for you: what do you want your wealth to make possible now? Income planning, legacy structuring, philanthropy, and the design of a financial life that reflects your values , not just your proceeds.

Your advisors

The people who know this work

Brad Cougill

Wealth Manager · Partner

Business owners, executives, and families navigating significant life transitions. Specializes in the financial complexity of equity events and business succession planning.
"I believe the most important financial conversation is the one about what really matters to you. Everything else follows from that."
Why this matters here: Brad has guided business owners through liquidity events at every scale for over two decades. His February WealthWhile® Insight article , on the financial preparation most owners skip before a sale , is drawn directly from this work.

Marcus Miller

Wealth Manager · Partner

High-income professionals and clients who want their wealth to support genuine freedom and purposeful living. Known for translating complex situations into clear direction.
"I’m here to facilitate freedom in your life choices , not to serve as a scorecard."
Why this matters here: Marcus frequently works alongside Brad on business owner engagements, particularly where peak-earning complexity and equity compensation intersect with transition planning.
Relevant insights

Thinking written for your situation

Thinking about a transaction in the next few years?

The earlier the conversation starts, the more we can do. A preliminary discussion is free, confidential, and will tell you exactly what planning windows are still open to you.

Indianapolis · Chicago suburbs · Nationwide