A professional services firm serving family groups that own operating businesses. We have successfully helped over 140 business owners and their families establish and execute on a decision-making process in anticipation of a succession event.

The Business Advisory Services group is unique in our agnostic approach. Our sole focus is on helping clients make decisions about the future of their business and achieving their desired goals. The succession process is focused on that of the operating business, an illiquid asset which typically accounts for more than 80% of our client’s net worth.

Our unique process includes:

• Individual interviews with all shareholders and their stakeholders to determine their views on the future of the business and their role in it;
• A decision-making process with shareholders regarding their personal goals and the future of the business, focusing on three realms: numerical, operational, and relational;
• A mutual determination of which succession events would best suit these goals; and
• Hands-on project management to ensure that current majority ownership and future ownership reach their desired outcomes.

Common outcomes provided include, but are not limited to, internal transactions, intra-family transfer or sale, “pruning” the family tree, ESOP (employee stock ownership plan), and third-party sale.

When we’re referred to an entrepreneur by their long-standing advisors, we hear two things. On one hand, planning is considered “done.” On the other hand, big issues remain on the table. Why the disconnect?

Much of the industry treats exit planning as if the exit itself is the starting point.
The true time horizon for developing a strategy is ten times wider, and, shortening the runway relinquishes a person’s choices. So why is the process stuck?

We hear three common challenges: uncertainty, complexity and lack of collaboration.

Uncertainty: If you keep doing what you’re doing, will you come out ok? Is the work you’ve done so far going to get you where you want or need to be?

Complexity: As your business becomes more successful, life doesn’t get easier, it gets more complex. Isn’t there a simpler approach to decision-making?

Collaboration: If you were to ask each of your key advisors to articulate your top five goals, and the timeline for achieving them, would you get the same answer?

To overcome these challenges, decades ago we created a proprietary decision-making model. Through the use of this model:

• We eliminate uncertainty by helping you get to unshakable clarity about how you’d like your story to play out from here forward. You’ll arrive at pinpoint wisdom about your long-range objectives: that place of instinctual decision-making all great entrepreneurs know and trust.
• We mitigate complexity by showing you the simultaneous impact of any decision in three essential realms: numerical, operational and relational. We look at the upside and downside of any decision: not just best-case scenarios but risks as well.
• We define collaboration as the mutual sharing of information and insights between all your advisors. It begins behind the scenes, with your documented long-range objectives as the litmus test for recommendations. Then, together we come to you for decision-making.
• Finally, we help you executive on your documented goals using our proprietary financial modeling tool and custom-tailored project management software. This ensures that the documented goals are achieved rather than passed onto you to execute on your own.