Helping small-business owners build, grow and exit

An increasing number of small-business owners are looking beyond traditional retirement plan support when using financial advisors and are turning to them for financial planning that expands their access to a wide range of plans. Three financial professionals recently shared how they serve their small-business owner clients beyond retirement planning.

Services offered to small-business owners

Nathan Sebesta, a 4-year Million Dollar Round Table member and owner and planner at Access Wealth Owner and Financial Strategies, said that beyond retirement planning, his firm helps small-business owners with tax strategies, cash flow planning, employee benefits, insurance and risk management, key person and buy-sell planning, and eventually, succession or exit planning.

“We also coordinate with their CPAs and attorneys to make sure the different pieces of their financial plan work together,” Sebesta said. “We take this approach because, for most business owners, their business and personal financial lives are closely connected. The business may be their largest asset, primary source of income and a major part of their retirement strategy. Looking only at investments or retirement accounts would miss a significant part of their financial picture.”

This approach, he added, has helped his clients make better coordinated decisions as their businesses have grown. It also has strengthened his firm’s relationships with small-business owner clients. “Rather than helping with just one transaction,” he said, “we become a resource they can turn to as their business and personal financial needs evolve.”

Additional services provided

Juli McNeely, president and financial planner at Financial Clarity by Design and a 19-year MDRT member, said that her firm offers several services to small-business owners.

“Two of the advisors in our office – including me - are Certified Exit Planner Advisors and we focus on determining the value of the small business and its place in the personal portfolio of the owner and then assist with planning the exit strategy for the owner or owners. We have also recently added a team member who will assist with bookkeeping services for our small-business clients,” she said.

Why these services?

McNeely also shared a few reasons her firm decided to offer these services.

“We’ve found that often, the business is by far the largest asset in the business owner’s portfolio,” she said. “The owner invests back in the business and continues to try to grow its value. Owners are also typically very good at their trade or business, but they are not always adept at running their business. They would rather focus on what they are good at.”

“But,” McNeely added, “when you own a business, you wear many hats. Assisting with the day-to-day financial management can ease the load the owner carries on their shoulders.”

McNeely said she has found that if the small-business owner doesn’t have an exit strategy, the significant asset can’t be converted to an income flow in retirement or a sale that turns into a cash asset that can be invested to fund the owner’s retirement lifestyle.

“As financial advisors,” she said, “we can help create the plan and guide the owner long before they are ready or are forced to retire. This allows the business that provided a healthy income during their working years to continue to provide income long into retirement.”

The road to offering more services

When asked what additional services he offers to his small-business owner clients, Brian Haney, senior vice president and association and nonprofit specialist at Relation Insurance Services, said that the longer answer to this question stems from addressing the issue of why he left banking to pursue building an independent practice. Haney, who is a 17-year MDRT member, said he became frustrated by the limitations of the services available to him and got tired of telling his clients, “I am sorry, but we don’t do that.”

This led Haney to pursue an independent financial model where he could deliver some of the most basic and critical services that business owners needed help with, including comprehensive property/casualty coverage and employee benefits.

“Businesses are as much about people as anything else,” Haney said. “Having a dimension of our practice that could help with connections and holistic planning was important. We also wanted to make sure these businesses could operate in a protected manner, so managing their operational and business risks also reinforced our value and enhanced our capabilities.”

Haney also earned the Certified Family Business Specialist designation to enhance his knowledge of entities, tax strategies and the additional layer of working with family members. This is a venture he pursued when he founded his family business as well.

“We want to act as part business coach and part business advisor, walking with our business clients through the various stages of the business life cycle in the same way we guide our individual clients through their life cycle,” he said.

The reasons for offering additional services

Why did Haney decide to provide additional services? He said that his first goal was to help a startup organization hire its first employee and offer them health insurance. “I wanted to help two business partners in an LLC scale their practice responsibly without breaking the bank,” he said.

Many of the businesses that Haney worked with did not have substantial life insurance, retirement plan assets or other needs early in their careers. He wanted his practice to be there to help these business clients with the needs they had before other needs became significant.

Haney added that his approach to helping business owners is to always stay focused on becoming a part of their business, meeting them where they are, and being a partner to help them continue focusing on their business and not on their financial or insurance concerns.

“I want to connect with their passion and their why for running the business, because if I fail to invest alongside them in their reason for existing, then it is harder to help them make the decisions they will need to make along the way.”

Haney said that he also listens to the things that small-business owners share, which are barriers not only to working with him, but also to moving forward more productively and strategically.

Engaging small-business owners

The steps of engagement with business owners are straightforward, Haney said.

“Assess their business and financial risks to create a success road map for them – one that focuses on their passion, protects what matters most and ensures they can stay focused on what they do best. Much of the strategy is built around the life cycle of a business, where we triage the financial concerns based on need and where the business is in that cycle. Helping a business owner see the life that their business might take encourages them to know that their growth will take them where they want to go. By addressing the key financial issues at each stage along the way, we can collaboratively help them achieve their dreams.”

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