Get to Know Financial Advisors Who Offer Specialized Planning For Business Owners

Are you an entrepreneur who feels like traditional financial planning isn’t the right approach for you?

Your business is often your biggest investment, and you have many unique and powerful opportunities to maximize your wealth. It’s important to work with an advisor who specializes in helping business owners.

Because your business is your largest asset, it’s important to take advantage of the planning opportunities that are available to you.  These areas include Tax Strategies, Asset Protection Strategies, Exit Planning, Estate Planning, and Investment Management.

It’s important to review each one of these areas because they can help you make strategic moves that increase your wealth over time.  And they can be interrelated. 

For example, if you qualify for Section 1202 Qualified Small Business Stock, the first $10 million of your sale price for your business is exempt from capital gains tax.  This requires long-term planning to take advantage of this powerful tax strategy, which will be an important part of your exit strategy.

Not all financial advisors have the experience or the capabilities to offer this specialized planning. You will likely find dozens of financial advisors that offer pre-retirement planning in your area. They typically focus on investments, Social Security, and pensions for income planning in retirement. However, it may be more challenging to find a financial advisor who focuses on complex planning for entrepreneurs and business owners.

Hiring an advisor who specializes in working with business owners can not only produce a plan that is specific to your needs but also save you time in the process. They know which questions to ask, have a deep bench of specialists they can access if needed, and won’t waste your time on objectives that don’t matter.

Specialized Planning for Business Owners

💡 In the Q&A below, you’ll gain insights from financial advisors who offer specialized planning for business owners to help them minimize taxes and optimize the value of their business.

🙋‍♀️ Do you have questions not answered below? Use the form on this page to submit your questions, and we’ll update this article with answers from the financial professionals and educators in the Wealthtender community. You can also contact the financial advisors featured in this article directly to set up an introductory call or ask your questions by email.

💸 Smart Money Insights for Business Owners

 

This page is organized into sections to help you quickly find the information you need and get answers to your questions:

1. Q&A with Financial Advisors Who Offer Specialized Planning for Business Owners
2. Get Answers to Your Questions About Financial Planning for Business Owners
3. Browse Related Articles

Q&A: Financial Advisors Who Offer Specialized Planning for Business Owners

Q&A with Chris Wilbratte

 

We asked Austin-based financial advisor and small business specialist Chris Wilbratte to answer questions he often hears from business owners he’s served over his 30-year career.

Q: Can you share what the difference is between financial planning for a person who has W2 income and financial planning for business owners?

Chris: I would compare it to finding the right doctor. Let’s focus on Estate Planning and Tax Strategy to illustrate the difference.  

A generalist can help most people with estate planning, including important documents such as a will, durable power of attorney, medical power of attorney, and end-of-life directives for physicians.  It will vary from state to state, and it’s always important to consult with an attorney.   

However, while business owners may need those documents, they also need a specialist to help them identify documents that are specific to business owners.  These documents include a business operating agreement, succession planning agreements, and a cross-purchase or buy-sell agreement.  These documents cover the contingencies that may occur during the life of a business owner if someone dies, if the owners have irreconcilable differences, if one has to be bought out, or if someone retires.   It’s much easier to plan for these contingencies when there isn’t a crisis or there isn’t a lot of money on the line.

Another illustration of the difference is tax strategy.  Tax strategy for individuals is fairly limited to tax credits, charitable giving, and Roth IRA conversions.  In contrast, business owners have many tax savings opportunities because Congress writes tax laws to encourage specific types of business activity. In fact, only about 15% of the tax code is focused on tax compliance.   The other 85% is a legal roadmap to paying lower taxes.

The key is to work with a firm that specializes in tax strategy that can match the facts of your business to the tax code to identify the legal strategies to lower your taxes.   Of course, you don’t want to jump through hoops to save a few hundred dollars, so it’s important for them to perform a cost-benefit analysis for you.

These are just a few high-level examples of the difference between financial planning for business owners and individuals.

Q: What do you see as a common challenge business owners face when searching for financial planning?

Chris: Because of the unique needs and opportunities for business owners, they may find that working with a generalist may leave gaps in their plan.   Their planning must be viewed through the lens of their business. It is vitally important that an advisor understands how Tax Strategy intersects with Exit Planning and Estate Planning.  Or how Asset Protection and Estate Planning must be coordinated to maximize protection while maintaining control over the assets.  The level of complexity is much higher, and so are the potential payoffs. 

Also, there will be multiple subject matter experts involved in this process, such as CPAs, Estate Planning Attorneys, Business Valuation Specialists, Bankers, and Insurance Specialists. A business-focused advisor speaks the language of each of the specialists and can be the hub to ensure that everyone is working towards the same goal, holding them accountable to a timetable. This will save you the time and frustration of being the middleman sharing information on complex topics.

Get to Know Chris Wilbratte, Financial Advisor for Business Owners:

 

 

View Chris Wilbratte’s profile page on Wealthtender or visit his website to learn more.

 

Q: For Business owners who are starting this type of specialized planning process, what guidance can you provide to help them make an informed and educated decision?

Chris:  Entrepreneurs are idea people.  They collect ideas and integrate them into their lives and their businesses.  That is an asset when building a business. But it is usually a negative when it comes to their financial plan. 

They may hear one idea from a friend, another from an advisor, or see something in the news that they implement on an ad hoc basis.  If this approach is taken, they will end up with an uncoordinated collection of financial strategies, and none of them are aligned and working towards clearly defined objectives.  It would be similar to constructing a house one room at a time with no plan for how you live and whether you are building for a family of 5 or empty nesters. 

Many times, business owners use the same piecemeal approach to creating their financial plan. They hire an estate planning attorney, a CPA, or a one-stop shop like a giant brokerage firm.  They seek specific advice from each one, but the odds of getting what they want and need are low because there is little to no coordination between the disciplines.  The result is a plan that doesn’t maximize the opportunities in each area, with significant holes in the plan that could backfire.

The solution is to assemble a team that has expertise in each area of business financial planning to provide them with meaningful and measurable results.  One way to do this is for the business owner to interview multiple professionals in each area of expertise (CPA, Attorney, etc.) to assemble his or her dream team of professionals.  However, the demands of running a business in today’s competitive business climate leave little time for this type of time-intensive search.

An alternative is to hire an advisor who focuses on planning for business owners.  After gaining an understanding of the objectives the business owner wants to achieve, the advisor can assist with the search. They can set up interviews with multiple vetted professionals in each area of expertise at the table for the business owner.  This saves time and enables the business owner to build a team based on the level of rapport and expertise that meets their needs. 

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Taking the Next Step

 

As an entrepreneur, your business is more than just your largest asset. With the help of a financial advisor knowledgeable in serving business owners, you’ll uncover opportunities to maximize the value of your business, minimize taxes, and develop an exit strategy that provides you with peace of mind throughout your journey. Whether you live in Austin or operate a business elsewhere across the US, schedule a free introductory call with Chris Wilbratte to discuss how an experienced business advisor may benefit you.

 

Resources to Help You Choose a Financial Advisor

✅ Top Questions to Ask a Financial Advisor

✅ How Much Does a Financial Advisor Cost?

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