Exit & Succession Planning

Exiting a business is more than a financial transaction; it’s a major life milestone. We collaborate with attorneys, CPAs and M&A advisors to guide business owners and families through every stage of succession, whether transferring ownership to the next generation or orchestrating a third-party sale. By structuring tax-efficient sales and gifting strategies, we preserve the enterprise's integrity, protect the value you’ve built, and help you design a meaningful, well-capitalized next chapter.

How we work

What we do

The company planned as part of the household, long before the exit.

Pre-transaction planning

Years before a sale, we help arrange the company’s structure, fund the right trusts and weigh which taxes are worth paying (income, estate or property) and which can be reduced, so what you keep is ready to fund your next chapter.

Succession design

Who takes over, and of what: family members or an executive team, perhaps different people for different parts. Governance, employment and buy-sell agreements, and a gradual transfer through sales and gifts, give the move a structure.

Life after the business

A sale or a handover often ends the role that organized your life. We plan the money and the meaning together: what the proceeds are for, and what comes next for you.

When it matters most

The moments a company changes hands, and what we do in each.

All transitions

Liquidity Event

The sale of a business you own, or a large part of it. Years of concentrated, illiquid value become cash at a single closing, and the role that organized your life often ends with it.

The structure is set before the letter of intent, and the proceeds have a plan before they land.

Taking Over a Business

Stepping into a company you did not start, usually one your family did. You inherit its relationships and its comparisons along with its balance sheet.

The successor steps in with the agreements, the cover and the authority in place.

Career Change

Leaving one line of work for another, or for none. The financial break has a date and the psychological one does not.

Leaving a company you own is planned together with the years after it.

Death of a Loved One

The death of a partner or family member. Grief and administration arrive together, and only the administration has deadlines.

The buy-sell agreement, and the cover behind it, decide who owns the shares next.

Common questions

Years before a sale, where possible. §1202, which can exclude part of the gain on qualified small business stock when its conditions are met, depends on how and when the shares were issued and how long they have been held, so it is checked years ahead. Trust funding and entity and residency choices are best made well before a sale is agreed, and many of them narrow once a letter of intent is signed.

Start with a conversation.

Tell us what is changing in your family. We listen first, and tell you plainly whether we are the right office for it.

All seven services