Who We Help · Business Owners

Your business is an asset.
It shouldn't be your only one.

Most business owners we talk to have built something real. What they haven't always done is build a financial life that exists independently of the business. We help you do both — without getting in the way of running the thing that got you here.

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5+ years Ideal planning window before an exit

$4M Illinois estate tax threshold — lower than most owners expect

One call Is all it takes to start getting the full picture

The Challenge

When the business is the plan

For a lot of business owners, personal financial planning keeps getting pushed to next year. The business needs cash. There’s a hire to make, equipment to buy, a slow quarter to get through. It makes sense in the moment: you control the growth of the company, and reinvesting feels safer than sending money somewhere you can’t see it.

The problem shows up later. A business that hasn’t been structured to run without you is harder to sell than you think. A willing buyer at the price you need isn’t guaranteed. And if something happens to you before you’re ready to exit, the people who depend on you (personally and professionally) are exposed in ways that could have been addressed.

We’re not here to tell you to stop investing in your business. We’re here to make sure the rest of your financial life keeps pace with it.

The liquidity assumption

Counting on selling the business to fund retirement assumes a willing buyer, a favorable market, and timing you control. Those three things rarely align on demand.

The key person risk

If the business depends on you to run, its value depends on you being there. That’s a financial exposure that affects both the business and your family.

The passive income hope

Stepping back while collecting an owner’s share only works if the business can sustain itself without your daily involvement. Most can’t yet.

How We Help

Planning that works around how you actually run a business

We work with owners of small businesses, typically 5 to 25 employees, across a range of industries. The financial questions tend to be consistent whether you run a manufacturing shop, a service business, or a trade company. Here’s where we focus.

01

Retirement Plans

A well-structured retirement plan is one of the most tax-efficient tools available to a business owner. We help you choose, set up, and manage the right plan: SEP-IRA, SIMPLE IRA, Solo 401(k), or a full plan with employee participation. The goal is to make sure it’s working as hard as possible for you and your team.

Use our retirement plan comparison tool →

02

Tax Planning

Business owners have more levers to pull on taxes than almost anyone else: entity structure, timing of income and expenses, retirement plan contributions, owner compensation strategy. We work with your CPA to make sure you’re using all of them, not just the obvious ones.

Our tax planning approach →

03

Key Person Protection

If your business depends on you (or on a partner or key employee), life insurance isn’t just a personal safety net. It’s a business continuity tool. We help you structure key person coverage that protects the business’s ability to operate and gives your family real options if something unexpected happens.

We can implement life insurance-based solutions directly or advise on them, whichever fits your situation.

04

Personal Wealth Outside the Business

Building personal assets that exist independently of the business is the single most effective hedge against the risks you carry as an owner. We help you develop a strategy for moving money out of the business systematically, without disrupting cash flow, and putting it to work in ways that don’t hinge on the business’s continued success.

05

Exit & Transition Planning

Whether you’re planning to sell, pass the business to a family member, or structure a management buyout, the planning around an exit is complex and time-sensitive. Through Baird’s Business Owners Solutions group, we can connect you with specialists in business valuation, transaction advisory, and transition planning, while we manage the personal financial side.

Exit planning works best when it starts earlier than you think you need it.

Selling a business guide →

06

Estate Planning Coordination

A business interest complicates estate planning in ways a standard will doesn’t address. We work alongside your estate attorney to make sure your business interest, personal assets, and your family’s needs are coordinated so what you’ve built goes where you intend.

Estate planning coordination →

How This Works in Practice

The best time to plan a business exit is years before you need to

The strategies that create the most value before a business sale take time to work. Direct indexing to build harvestable losses. Estate restructuring to maximize exemptions. Transition conversations that shape the terms of the deal itself. None of these are last-minute moves.

A business owner came to us roughly five years before they expected to sell. The business was profitable and growing — built from the ground up over decades. There was a general sense that it was worth something, but no formal valuation had ever been done, and no one had thought seriously about what a sale would mean for taxes, the estate, or retirement income.

The first conversation was clarifying in ways they hadn't expected. The business was worth considerably more than assumed — well past the Illinois estate tax exemption threshold of $4 million. Because the business was owned entirely in one name, the other spouse's exemption was going untouched. A meaningful portion of what had taken decades to build was on a path to be taxed unnecessarily.

Over the following years, before a buyer was ever identified, we worked through several interconnected pieces:

Tax strategy

We implemented a direct indexing strategy designed to systematically harvest capital losses over time — building a pool of losses that could be used to offset a portion of the gains from the eventual sale. With a multi-year runway, this approach had room to work the way it's designed to.

Estate restructuring

Working alongside the estate attorney, we restructured how assets were titled to make use of both spouses' Illinois exemptions. For a state with a $4 million threshold — among the lowest in the country — this is often one of the highest-value conversations an Illinois business owner can have.

Exit coordination

When the time came, we brought in Baird's Business Owners Solutions group to advise on exit timing, process, and structure. We connected them with a business valuation firm, worked through how sale proceeds would fund retirement income, and helped them think through what life after the business actually looked like financially.

The outcome

The sale closed on their timeline, at a number they felt good about, with a tax picture that looked meaningfully different than it would have without the years of groundwork. The estate plan reflected the new reality of their wealth. And there was a retirement income plan in place before the final documents were signed.

The scenario described is hypothetical and is intended solely to illustrate the types of financial planning services that may be provided. It does not represent the experience of any specific client. Actual client experiences and outcomes will vary depending on individual circumstances and it should not be interpreted as a guarantee of future results or client experience.

Is This Right for You

What our business owner clients tend to have in common

We work best with owners who are past the early survival stage — the business is stable and profitable, but the personal financial picture hasn't kept pace. If any of these sound familiar, there's a good chance we can help.

✓ You reinvest most of your profits back into the business and haven't built much outside of it

✓ Your retirement plan is either nonexistent or hasn't been reviewed in years

✓ You're not sure what the business would actually sell for, or whether it's saleable without you

✓ You have a co-owner and no formal buy-sell agreement — or one that hasn't been updated

✓ You're paying more in taxes than you feel like you should be

✓ You're starting to think seriously about what comes next — and realizing you don't have a plan for it yet

Who You’re Working With

We run a practice. We understand running a business.

Baird handles the back office — compliance, technology, research, trading infrastructure. What we manage ourselves are the things any small business owner manages: how to grow, where to focus, how to price our services, what to spend money on, how to show up for clients consistently. That context is not incidental to how we work with business owners. It shapes every conversation.

Eric Jones, CFP® Certified Financial Planner® Professional · Tax Planning Focus

Eric came to financial planning after years in a family business — making payroll decisions, managing cash flow, and understanding what it feels like when every financial call is your own. He brings that frame to every client relationship: practical, direct, and clear about what matters most.

Full bio →

Brianna Hook, CDFA® Certified Divorce Financial Analyst® · Life Transitions

Brianna built her career by stepping into complex situations and figuring out what clients actually needed — not what was easiest to provide. She works across all of our client relationships, including business owners, and brings the same clear-headed approach whether the conversation is about a retirement plan, a key person policy, or what the next chapter looks like.