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Your Exit Plan is Like a Parachute

Your plan, much like a parachute, is both a vehicle for achieving your objectives and a safeguard against an unfortunate end.

As a business owner, you have unique and complex challenges: reducing taxes, protecting wealth, providing security for families, selling or transferring a business, and giving to charity. These are the challenges we help people like you overcome.

“…71% of small and mid-sized business owners plan to exit their businesses within the next ten years, strongly highlighting the growing importance of enhancing business value. However, the challenge is that few organizations genuinely understand what actions they must take to achieve this goal…”—Deloitte and Touche Limited

Does Your Plan Have Holes? Common Observations…

Many business owners lack written, formalized plans for both their businesses and their families.
Most owners’ objectives for “exiting in style” are not reflected in their current plan design.
A large number of those who say they have done “some planning” to “recent and complete planning” have outdated or non-executed plan documents.
In cases that do not have an existing advisor team and/or Most Trusted Advisor, there exists poor coordination among legal, tax, and financial strategies.
For those who have had plans fail, it is often attributed to non-alignment of their business and personal planning.
Insufficient (or non-existent) contingency planning for the owner’s death/incapacitation is the most commonly-voiced concern among our clients.

The Best Time to Check For Holes — Before You Jump

Our focused, objective advice can facilitate prudent decisions about your future and your family’s future. The first step is a meeting to learn more about your particular situation. An Exit Planning assessment is an indicator of an owner’s preparedness, concerns, and weaknesses regarding his exit. Factors to consider include:

Every Business Owner Should Know:

When do you plan to exit the business?
Who will take over ownership when you exit?
How much money do you need for post-exit financial security?
Exit Objectives
Business Valuation and Cash Flow
Sale or Transfer of Ownership Interest
Unification of Business and Estate Plans

The Exit Planning Assessment can be completed over the phone, at your office, or at Erben Associates, LLC. Contact us to schedule an assessment, request an assessment online, or register to view our library of articles on Exit Planning topics.

Now That You’ve Checked for Holes in the Parachute…

How can you prepare for a successful parachute jump (exit from the business)?

As one of the 9.5 million business owners in the United States, you are likely to be over 50 years old. According to a 2005 PriceWaterhouseCoopers survey of companies in the $5 million to $150 million value range, there is a two in three chance that you plan to leave your company within the next ten years. Yet, only 22% of you report having done a great deal of succession planning.

In fact, you’re more likely to have plans in place should you become disabled than to have planned for your voluntary and inevitable exit!

Given that your exit from the company is likely to be the most significant financial event of your life, what are you waiting for?

Contact us to schedule an assessment, request an assessment online, or register to view our library of articles on Exit Planning topics.