Financial planning for business owners
If the company is the largest thing you own, a plan that treats it like a side account is the wrong plan. The work is personal versus business, concentration, and readiness that still matters if you never sell.
Last reviewed September 5, 2026.
Is my company my largest portfolio risk?
Almost always yes. Salary, distributions, guarantees, and identity all sit on one asset. A diversified brokerage account does not offset that. The honest version of financial planning for business owners starts by sizing the company as a position, then building the outside pool against real obligations: tax, family, debt, and a bad year in the business.
What financial planning does a business owner actually need?
Three buckets, not a product menu. Business: entity, compensation, retirement plan design, and what a buyer or lender would trip over. Personal: cash, insurance, estate documents that are actually funded, and wealth outside the company. Transfer: who gets the shares, on what terms, and whether the buy-sell still works after Connelly v. United States (602 U.S. 2024), which treated redemption life insurance as a corporate asset without a matching offset for the redemption obligation.
A CPA files. An attorney drafts. We keep those two from solving different problems, and we say when the existing plan is enough.
What we do
- Separate personal and business balance sheets: owner loans, guarantees, commingled accounts.
- Build an outside pool without starving the company of cash it actually needs.
- Run a three-year readiness calendar even when no sale is planned.
- Coordinate cash-balance or defined-benefit design with reasonable compensation, when the census fits.
- Link to liquidity work only when an exit is real. The ongoing page is this one. The transaction page is founder liquidity planning.
What should I do three years before selling?
Year three is cleanup and records: QSBS issuance files, related-party deals, customer concentration, and personal guarantees. Year two is structure and gifting that has to look old. Year one is tax modeling, estate funding, and a team that already talks to each other. Buyers price chaos. So do estates.
How much of my net worth should sit outside my company?
Enough to fund the life you would still have if the company had a bad two years, plus taxes you already owe. There is no universal percentage. The outside pool is for obligations, not for a target allocation slide. Paths include compensation design, partial liquidity, and simply stopping the habit of leaving every spare dollar in the business.
Can I contribute more than a 401(k) allows?
Often yes, through a cash-balance or other defined-benefit plan, if profits are stable enough and the employee census works. It is a commitment, with real administration cost. It is not a trick. We look at it next to reasonable compensation and the cash the company actually needs.
Do I need planning if I'm not selling?
Yes, if the company is still the portfolio. Health, a partner dispute, a key-person event, or a surprise offer do not wait for a five-year plan. Annual tax design, funded documents, and an outside reserve are the boring version of optionality.
Educational only, not tax or legal advice. Clexperus does not draft legal documents. Clexperus is a registered branch office of A.G.P./Alliance Global Partners. Clexperus Capital & Wealth Advisory is an independent multi-family office based in Aventura, Florida, advising founders, business owners, executives, and globally connected families on liquidity events, tax and estate design, concentrated equity, and private markets.
Next steps
If the company is the plan, start with a conversation about what is already handled and what has been sitting on the list.