Before the sale. During the deal. After the wire hits.
Selling your business is likely the largest liquidity event, the largest tax event, and the most cash you will ever receive at one moment. We plan the personal side of it: what happens to you, not just the business.
A conversation, not a pitch. It costs you an hour.
This decision only happens once.
Most of the money decisions you have made were repeatable. You could adjust next quarter, next year, next deal. A business sale is different. Unless you plan to build another company, you are selling into the rest of your life, and the decisions around the sale are one-shot.
Part of the game is keeping what you have earned. The other part is allocating it correctly.
The range of outcomes is wide.
The sale might not happen. It might close for less than you expect, or for far more. We model those scenarios before the deal so you know what each one means for the life you are planning afterward.
The tax outcome is set early.
Depending on how the deal is structured, proceeds can land as ordinary income or capital gains, and certain planning steps can meaningfully change the tax outcome. Many of them only work if they happen before the sale.
Some structures have a deadline.
Trust, estate, and insurance planning built ahead of the sale can do work that nothing can do after the ink dries. Waiting is itself a decision.
One plan, three phases.
The first thing we tell a business owner who is two years out: build your team of advisors now. A planner, a CPA, and often someone in mergers and acquisitions. Here is the seat we take in that room.
Get the personal side ready.
We start with your financial plan and the range of sale outcomes, so every decision has context. Then we work with your CPA to put the right tax, trust, and estate structures in place while they can still make a difference. We do not advise on preparing the business itself for sale, and we can bring in M&A partners and CPAs who do.
Structure the deal around your life.
We do not negotiate with your buyer. We help you weigh what the deal terms mean for you personally: seller financing, equity carry, a payout over years versus cash at close. Which options serve your plan, and which should be non-negotiable.
Turn proceeds into a plan.
Taxes on the proceeds, coordinated with your CPA. A diversified portfolio designed around reliable, tax-efficient income, because after the accumulation phase the job changes from building wealth to living on it. Preserving what the sale created, held through market cycles, all of it at a deliberate pace.
The first 90 days are supposed to feel slow.
When that much cash becomes available, everyone around you will want you to move fast. Speed is not your friend here.
Our approach after the wire hits: let the cash stay in cash. Let your emotions settle. Handle the few time-sensitive tax steps if they apply to your situation, and then move forward systematically, foundationals first, with a plan you understand.
Independent in every decision.
Anchored Wealth Advisors is an independent firm held to a fiduciary standard. We choose strategies and partners based on one thing: what fits your plan.
Tax work is coordinated with your CPA so the plan and the return tell the same story. Estate work is executed with your attorney. You keep your team; we make sure it plays as one.
Securities offered through Arete Wealth Management, LLC, Member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through Arete Wealth Advisors, LLC, an SEC-registered investment advisory firm.
Not ready for a conversation? Start with the guide.
The Liquidity-Event Readiness Guide walks through what to put in place before, during, and after a sale, in plain English.
What business owners ask us.
- I'm selling my business in the next two years. What should I be doing right now?
- Build your team of advisors: a financial planner, a CPA, and often an M&A professional. Then get clear on your own financial plan and the range of sale outcomes, because the structures that help most, including trust, estate, and certain tax planning, need to be in place before the sale.
- What are the biggest mistakes owners make in the year after they sell?
- Financially, it is not addressing taxes early and discovering the size of the bill after the fact. Personally, it is having no plan for life after the sale. Owners who sell without something to work toward often regret the sale itself, not the price.
- What should I do in the first 90 days after closing?
- Less than you think. Outside of a few time-sensitive tax-driven steps, the strongest move is usually letting the cash stay in cash, letting your emotions settle, and then moving forward methodically with a plan. Foundationals first.
- How should I pick an advisor after a liquidity event?
- Start by being honest with yourself about whether you want help at all. People who build and sell businesses are intelligent, and some genuinely prefer to run their own money. The real question is whether you want to spend your time learning post-sale complexity, from private investments to advanced insurance and philanthropic planning, or spend it on what is next. Either answer is legitimate.
- Will you work with my CPA and my attorney?
- Yes, by design. Tax strategy is coordinated with your CPA, estate work is executed with your attorney, and our job is making sure the whole plan points one direction.
Working becomes a choice.
That happens when money is no longer the deciding factor in how you spend your time. It is what all the planning is for. The first meeting is a conversation about the life you are selling into, and we do more asking than telling.