The wire lands. Then what?
For most owners the sale is the largest financial event of their life, and the planning that matters most happens before closing, not after. Structure, timing and tax decide how much of the headline price you actually keep.
The questions that arrive the week after closing.
What we help with, and who does what.
We are M&A advisors, not your CPA and not your investment manager. What we do is make sure those people are in the room early enough to change the outcome, and that the deal itself is structured with the after-tax result in mind.
Structure planned before the LOI
Asset sale versus stock sale, personal goodwill treatment and entity structure change the tax bill materially, and they are hard to revisit after the letter of intent is signed. Read asset sale vs. stock sale.
Your advisors, coordinated
Tax counsel, estate attorney and wealth manager working from the same deal terms and the same timeline, well before closing.
Proceeds modeled honestly
Escrow, holdbacks, earn-outs and seller notes mean the headline price is not what arrives. We model what actually hits, and when.
Life after the non-compete
What you can do, where and when. Many owners discover they want to be involved in the industry again, and the agreement they signed decides whether that is possible.
The structure that protects your proceeds is negotiated before exclusivity.
Once the letter of intent is signed, most of the structural decisions are already made. That is the moment to have your tax and estate advice in hand, not afterwards.
Questions about life after the sale.
No. We are not investment advisors and we do not manage or invest your proceeds. We help you get to closing with the best structure and make sure the right specialists are involved in time.
Before the letter of intent, without exception. After the LOI, the structure is largely agreed and options that would have saved significant tax are gone.
In certain structures a portion of the value attaches to you personally rather than to the company, which can be taxed more favorably. It has to be established well before closing. See personal vs. corporate goodwill.
Rarely all of it. Escrow, holdbacks, earn-outs and seller notes push a portion out in time or make it conditional. Read earn-outs, seller notes and holdbacks.