Financial Advisors After a Business Exit

Kimberly Green | 2026-03-20

Financial Advisors for People After a Business Exit You sold the company. Now what? The months after a liquidity event are the most financially consequential of most founders' lives. The decisions made in the first 12 to 24 months after a sale—about taxes, reinvestment, structure, and lifestyle—shape everything that follows. Most people find an advisor after the sale. The ones who keep the most money find one before. What Happens Financially in the Year of an Exit A business sale is not a paycheck. It's a tax event, a wealth event, and a planning event that all happen simultaneously. Here's what needs to be managed: Capital gains tax: The difference between your basis and the sale price is taxable. The rate depends on how long you held the equity and how the deal was structured. Long-term capital gains rates are meaningfully lower than ordinary income rates—but only if you've held qualifying assets long enough. Qualified Small Business Stock (QSBS): Section 1202 can exclude up to $10M in gains from federal tax if your company qualified and you held the stock for more than five years. If your advisor doesn't bring this up, they've either already handled it or they don't know it exists. This is not an edge case—it's potentially the largest tax break you'll encounter. Deal structure: Stock sale vs. asset sale, earnouts, installment payments, and escrow holdbacks all have different tax treatments. These terms are negotiated, and a good advisor should be involved before the LOI is signed. State taxes: If you're in a high-tax state at the time of sale, the combined state and federal rate on proceeds can exceed 35%. Some founders plan around this. Most don't. Advisors Built for Post-Exit Planning Ian Weiner, CFP, CEPA – Serves Nationally Ian's CEPA designation (Certified Exit Planning Advisor) represents specific training in exactly this situation. His practice is designed around the 2-to-5-year runway before a sale—where the financial, tax, and personal planning decisions are made that determine the outcome. The ideal time to find Ian is before you've signed anything. The second-vetted time is immediately after, before the proceeds hit your account and the decisions about reinvestment get made by default. Fee: 0.5% to 1.75% of AUM. Serves clients nationally. Find him: samslist.co/advisor/ian-weiner-cfpr-cepa Anthony Syracuse, CFP – Scottsdale, AZ Post-exit clients represent a specific challenge for financial planning: suddenly liquid, suddenly wealthy, and suddenly without the daily occupation that structured their decision-making. Anthony's "Return on Life"...