Business Exit Kit
A Business Sale Is A Once-In-A-Career Decision. Plan It That Way.
Most of what you own may be tied up in the business you built. The way the sale gets structured, when it happens, and what comes after can shape retirement, taxes, family liquidity, and estate planning for the next thirty years. This is where to start that thinking.
The Planning Timeline
From Thinking About It
To Life After Closing.
A strong exit is built in stages. The earlier you coordinate the business, tax, legal, and personal planning, the more control you usually have over what the sale delivers.
Build the case
Clean financials, normalize EBITDA, reduce owner dependence, and start shaping the story buyers will eventually price.
Assemble the team
Bring in financial planning, tax counsel, an M&A attorney, and a valuation read. Model the after-tax sale under multiple structures.
Readiness review
Tighten records, lock in key employees, document operations, and stress test the personal financial plan against likely outcomes.
Structure the deal
Weigh cash, rollover equity, earnouts, seller notes, and tax timing. Coordinate estate moves that may only work before closing.
Life after the sale
Reinvest the proceeds, fund retirement income, finalize the estate plan, and protect what the business spent decades creating.
Business Exit Planning White Papers
Use these papers to pressure-test the decisions that tend to surface before, during, and after a sale: deal structure, taxes, continuity, valuation, estate planning, and what the proceeds have to do for the family next.
The Business Exit Wave
Who's selling, who's buying, and why some businesses move quickly while others sit. A look at the decade ahead for owner transitions.
Read the article
Selling Your Business Checklist
What buyers expect to see before they value the business: records, operations, owner dependence, and the planning details most owners only discover under pressure.
Read the article
Exit Planning Timeline: when to start and who to talk to
Two timelines run in parallel before any sale: business readiness and personal readiness. This is the one to read first if you're three to seven years out and trying to figure out where to begin.
Read the article
Tax-Efficient Exit Strategies
Entity structure, timing, installment payments, charitable planning, and the tax details that can move after-tax proceeds by a meaningful amount.
Read the articleReadiness Scorecard
What Buyers, Lenders, And Your CPA Will All Want To See.
Financial
What a buyer's diligence team scrutinizes first.
- Reviewed or audited financials
- Clean monthly close discipline
- Normalized EBITDA worked out
- Working capital baseline defined
- Revenue concentration mapped
Operational
Whether the business can run without the owner.
- Second layer of leadership in place
- Documented processes and SOPs
- Customer relationships not solo
- Key employee retention plan
- Vendor contracts assignable
Owner side
The planning that has to be done before closing.
- Tax basis & entity review
- After-tax sale model run
- QSBS eligibility reviewed early
- Estate plan refreshed pre-sale
- Insurance & liability scrubbed
Buyer view
The story that decides the offer, not the asking price.
- Three-year growth narrative
- Recurring revenue clearly broken out
- Risk register acknowledged
- Realistic forward forecast
- Continuity plan post-close
Ranch & Real Asset Transitions
When The Exit Includes Land.
The ranch isn't a single asset on the tax return.
The same closing can generate ordinary income, capital gains, depreciation recapture, and 1231 treatment in different proportions depending on how the deal is allocated. That allocation is often where after-tax proceeds are won or lost.
- Land, equipment, livestock, and operating business get unpacked separately.
- Purchase price allocation can swing the tax bill in either direction.
- Installment sales and 1031 exchanges may change cash flow timing.
- Family identity, water rights, and improvements all enter the conversation.
Pre-Sale Review for Ranch Owners
How asset allocation, basis, and deal structure shape what's left after a ranch sale closes.
Read the article
Case Study: Selling Your Ranch
A hypothetical look at how taxes, 1031 exchanges, and installment sales reshape after-tax proceeds.
Read the article
Founder & Principal
Ken Hargreaves
CFP®, AIF®, AWMA®, CRPC®
Ken Hargreaves founded WealthGen Advisors, LLC after more than seventeen years in the financial advisory industry. Over that time, he witnessed a wide range of technology, expertise, and advice models that didn't always put the client first or fully optimize financial outcomes. WealthGen Advisors was established in Sarasota, Florida to deliver high-tech, high-quality, independent advice grounded in modern investment philosophy, tax-aware planning, and income optimization strategies—all within a low-fee, commission-free fiduciary model.
Before the sale becomes a number, make it part of the plan.
Whether you're three years out, sitting with a letter of intent, or working through what to do with proceeds that already closed, an initial conversation costs nothing and is held in confidence. If WealthGen isn't the right fit, we'll say so.
What a first call typically covers
- Where you are on the timeline and what's already moving
- The tax and structure questions worth surfacing early
- What a coordinated planning team would do next
- Whether there's a real fit between your situation and our practice
