Small Business Financial Planning

DREAM BIGGER WITH FINANCIAL ADVICE
FOR BUSINESS OWNERS

 Financial Planning That Connects Your Business and Personal Goals

As a small business owner, you can put an amazing amount of time and energy into providing for your employees, meeting the needs of your customers or clients, and growing your business.

But when so much of your focus goes toward the business, your personal financial situation can sometimes take a back seat. A comprehensive approach to financial planning can help you take stock of where things stand and consider strategies that address both sides of the equation.

• Do you have enough cash flow — personally and within your business? An advisor can help you evaluate how money moves between your business and personal accounts and whether your current structure supports both day-to-day operations and longer-term goals.
• Is your insurance coverage keeping pace with your business? As your business grows, your exposure to risk can change. Reviewing personal and professional insurance policies periodically can help identify gaps in coverage.
• What does your retirement and succession plan look like? Retirement plan options for business owners can be more complex to evaluate than standard employer plans. For some owners, retirement timing is closely linked to questions about business transition, whether that means a sale, a leadership handoff, or a family succession.
• Could your tax strategy be working harder for you? Coordinating tax planning across your business and personal returns may reveal opportunities to manage your overall tax liability more effectively — particularly around entity structure, compensation, and timing of income.
• Are your investments aligned with both your business and personal goals? When a large portion of your wealth is tied to your business, your personal investment portfolio may need to account for that concentration. An advisor can help you think through diversification, risk, and how your investments fit alongside your business assets.

By taking a comprehensive look at your business planning, taxes, investments, and retirement needs, a financial advisor can help you clarify your goals, make informed decisions, and work toward the future you envision.

FINANCIAL PLANNING FOR BUSINESS OWNERS

Does your business plan align with your personal financial goals?

For many business owners, the company is more than a source of income. It may be one of their largest assets, a key driver of taxes and cash flow, and a central part of their retirement, estate, and succession plan.

EP Wealth helps business owners connect decisions made inside the business with their personal financial plan, including cash flow, taxes, retirement planning, risk management, estate planning, succession, and exit readiness.

WHY BUSINESS OWNER PLANNING IS DIFFERENT

Business owners often face a planning challenge that traditional financial planning may not fully address: their business and personal finances are deeply connected.

A decision about owner compensation may affect taxes, retirement plan contributions, and personal cash flow. A decision to retain cash in the business may affect liquidity, investment risk, and the owner’s long-term financial plan. A future sale or succession may affect retirement readiness, charitable giving, estate planning, and family wealth transfer.

EP Wealth takes a coordinated approach to help business owners evaluate those connections and make informed decisions over time.

PLANNING BEFORE A BUSINESS TRANSITION

A business transition can affect more than the company. It may change your income, tax exposure, investment portfolio, estate plan, charitable goals, family dynamics, and retirement timeline. Planning before a sale, succession, or ownership transfer may help you understand your options before decisions become time sensitive.

EP Wealth helps you evaluate how a transition may affect your personal financial plan and coordinates with tax, legal, valuation, insurance, and transaction professionals where appropriate.

We can help you consider questions such as:

• What would a potential sale mean for my personal financial plan?
• Is the estimated business value sufficient to support my retirement goals?
• Should I consider a sale, internal succession, family transfer, or continued ownership?
• How should I think about cash at close, installment payments, earnouts, or rollover equity?
• Are there tax, estate, or charitable strategies to evaluate before a transaction?
• Are my buy-sell agreement, governance documents, insurance coverage, and estate plan aligned?

PLANNING ACROSS THE BUSINESS OWNER LIFECYCLE

Business owner planning needs change as the business evolves. EP Wealth can help you evaluate planning decisions at different stages of growth, profitability, maturity, and transition.

Growth and Profitability

As the business becomes more profitable, planning may focus on owner compensation, tax coordination, retirement plan design, business cash reserves, and balancing reinvestment with personal wealth building.

Maturity and Risk Management

As business value grows, planning may focus on continuity, buy-sell agreements, key-person risk, estate coordination, asset protection considerations, and concentration risk.

Transition or Sale

As an owner approaches a sale, family transfer, or internal succession, planning may focus on valuation, liquidity, tax coordination, retirement readiness, estate planning, charitable goals, and post-transition investment strategy.

BUSINESS CASH FLOW AND LIQUIDITY PLANNING

Business owners often make decisions about how much cash to retain in the business, how much to distribute personally, and how to fund major purchases, expansion needs, or investments. EP Wealth can help evaluate business cash flow in the context of your personal financial plan, coordinating with your tax professional, lending professionals, and other advisors where appropriate. This may include reviewing business cash flow, personal spending needs, liquidity reserves, debt obligations, planned investments, retirement contributions, and tax-sensitive timing considerations.

BUY-SELL AND BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLANNING

A well-structured buy-sell agreement can help support business continuity and clarify what happens in the event of retirement, death, disability, owner departure, or a future sale. EP Wealth works alongside legal, tax, and insurance professionals to help evaluate planning considerations related to buy-sell agreements, including funding, valuation considerations, liquidity needs, and alignment with each owner’s personal financial plan. For multi-owner businesses, this planning can help each stakeholder better understand how a triggering event may affect the business, their family, and their long-term financial plan.

BUSINESS OWNER RETIREMENT PLANNING: BEYOND THE 401(K)

Business owners often have access to a wider range of retirement plan options than traditional employees. That flexibility can create planning opportunities, but it can also create complexity. EP Wealth helps owners evaluate retirement plan options in the context of owner compensation, entity structure, employee demographics, cash flow, tax goals, and long-term exit timing. We also help owners connect retirement plan decisions to their broader financial picture, including personal savings goals, tax planning, investment allocation, business value, and the timing of a future transition.

BUSINESS REAL ESTATE CONSIDERATIONS

Business real estate may be an important part of an owner’s financial picture. Ownership structure, lease arrangements, debt, depreciation, cash flow, and potential sale scenarios can all affect your broader financial plan. EP Wealth can help evaluate how business-owned or personally held real estate may fit into your retirement, estate, investment, and liquidity planning, in coordination with your tax professional, attorney, and real estate professionals where appropriate.

INTEGRATING YOUR ADVISORY TEAM

Your business plan can become more effective when your advisors are aligned. EP Wealth takes a collaborative approach, working alongside your existing professional team so that planning recommendations are considered in the context of your broader personal and business goals.

Depending on your needs, we may coordinate with:

• Attorneys: to align business structures, buy-sell agreements, succession plans, estate documents, and ownership transfer strategies with your broader goals.
• Tax professionals: to evaluate tax implications and coordinate planning decisions with accurate and current financial data.
• Insurance professionals: to evaluate funding for buy-sell agreements, key-person coverage, disability planning, and other risk management needs.
• Valuation professionals: when a formal appraisal or valuation is needed for legal, tax, lending, or transaction purposes.
• Business brokers, investment bankers, or transaction advisors: when a potential sale, acquisition, ESOP, or recapitalization requires specialized transaction advice.

HOW TO GET STARTED

A business owner planning conversation can help you understand where your business and personal financial plan are aligned, where there may be gaps, and which planning opportunities may deserve further evaluation.

To begin, EP Wealth may ask for relevant information such as business tax returns, financial statements, governing documents, buy-sell agreements, retirement plan documents, insurance policies, estate planning documents, and any sale or transition-related materials.

You do not need to have every document ready before starting the conversation. The first step is understanding your goals and identifying which planning areas may be most important to address.

*Request an appointment with an EP Wealth Advisor when you have a minimum of $500,000 in investable assets – which includes qualified retirement plans (IRA, Roth IRA, 401(k), taxable brokerage, cash (savings / checking) and CDs. Investable assets do not include your home, vehicles, or collectibles.

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Whether you’re moderating risks, seeking additional cash flow, trying to minimize your taxes, or nearing retirement and business succession, a financial health assessment and financial portfolio review
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