Planning the Sale or Handover of Your Business
Whether the business goes to a child, a key employee or an outside buyer, the decisions that shape the result come years before closing. We plan them with your taxes, your retirement income and your estate in view.
Who Takes Over
Most exits follow one of these routes, and each raises its own questions about value, tax and timing.
A Child or Other Family Member
Can the successor afford to buy you out, or does ownership pass by gift over time? And what do the children outside the business receive?
Key Employees or Partners
An internal sale is usually paid for out of the company’s future profits. The terms have to work for the buyer and still pay you what you need.
An Outside Buyer
A competitor, a larger company or a private buyer. We can find the buyer and negotiate the sale. The price is only part of it: the terms, and what they leave you after tax, count as much.
Stepping Back Without Selling
You keep ownership, hand over the running of the company, and live on what it pays you. That only works if the business runs well without you.
Value, Tax, Income and the Estate
Tax, retirement and estate planning happen in one office here, so none of these gets decided on its own.
-
What the Business Is Worth
A planning-level estimate of value and what drives it, such as earnings, customer concentration and how much depends on you. It is not a certified appraisal.
-
Readiness for Sale
We review the financial statements, separate personal expenses from business expenses and address issues likely to come up during a buyer’s review.
-
Brokering the Sale
For a sale to an outside buyer, we find and screen buyers and negotiate the terms, judging every offer by what it leaves you after tax.
-
Succession to Family or Key Employees
A buyout the successor can carry, ownership moved over time, and a buy-sell agreement that matches the plan. The agreement itself comes from your attorney.
-
Tax on the Sale or Transfer
Selling the assets or the shares, how the price is allocated, installment payments and gifts of ownership, each modeled for what it leaves you after tax.
-
Your Income Afterward
What the proceeds need to replace, when to claim Social Security, and what the sale year does to your Medicare premium two years later.
-
The Estate After the Exit
Beneficiary forms, the buy-sell agreement and the estate documents brought into line with who owns what once the business changes hands.
Start Years Before the Sale
Many of the choices that lower the tax on a sale, or make a handover affordable, have to be made years in advance.
-
Five or More Years Out
Estimate the value, clean up the books, and settle the entity and owner pay while there is still time for the numbers to reflect it.
-
Two to Three Years Out
Choose the route. Model the tax on each structure, test your retirement income against a realistic price, and bring the buy-sell and estate plans into line.
-
The Year of the Sale
Weigh each offer by what it leaves you after tax, set estimated payments for the proceeds, and time Social Security around the income.
-
After the Closing
Turn the proceeds into income you can live on, and update the estate plan for what you now own.
Working With Your Other Advisors
A sale or handover brings in other professionals. Your attorney drafts the purchase agreement or the buy-sell, your lender may have terms of its own, and a formal valuation needs a credentialed appraiser.
We keep the numbers consistent between them, and we check each proposed term against your tax return, your retirement income and your estate.
Where our role stops. Savino & Associates is not a law firm or a certified appraiser. Agreements come from your attorney, and a formal appraisal from a credentialed appraiser.
Common Questions
When should I start planning to sell my business?
Ideally, several years before you intend to sell. Entity structure, owner pay, clean books and how much of the company depends on you all change what a buyer will pay. Each one takes years to show up in the numbers a buyer reads.
What is my business worth?
It depends on earnings, how much the company depends on you, its customers and the condition of its records. We can estimate it at a planning level, which is enough to plan a timeline and a retirement. A sale, a gift of shares or an estate filing can call for a certified appraisal, which comes from a credentialed appraiser.
Should I sell to family or to an outside buyer?
It depends on whether someone in the family wants to run the company and can afford to buy it, and on what you need from the sale to retire. The two routes trade different things: cash at closing against keeping the company in the family, often on payments over time. We model both before you choose.
Can you sell the business for me?
We broker sales to outside buyers. That means finding and screening buyers and negotiating the terms, with each offer weighed by what it leaves you after tax and what it means for your retirement. Your attorney handles the purchase agreement, and if real estate is part of the sale, the property goes through a licensed real estate broker.
Plan Your Business Transition
Bring your most recent business return and a rough sense of when you would like to step back. That is enough for a first conversation, and there is no obligation on either side.