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
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.
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.
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.
The people who know this work
Brad Cougill
Wealth Manager · Partner
Marcus Miller
Wealth Manager · Partner
Thinking written for your situation
The family meeting your estate plan requires , and how to make it work
Bringing adult children into your financial picture is one of the most important , and least discussed , elements of long-term WealthWhile® planning. Most families avoid it. The ones who don't are the ones who thrive.
How couples manage money: finding what works for your relationship
There is no single right answer , but there are wrong ones. A framework for navigating financial partnership.
5 high-income-year tax decisions that change your long-term picture
A windfall year requires different thinking. Here's what to do , and when to do it , before December.
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
