Exit planner

What this seat actually does

Exit planning is the work that happens well before a process starts: cleaning up financial records so they survive scrutiny, normalizing owner compensation and personal expenses, reducing customer concentration, building a management layer that runs the business without the owner, and resolving the shareholder and family questions that otherwise surface at the worst possible time.

It also covers the question owners are least prepared for, which is what happens to them afterward. Seller regret is common, it is rarely about money, and an advisor who raises it early is doing you a service rather than being sentimental.

When you need one

Two to five years before you intend to sell. The single highest-return period in a company’s life for this kind of work, and the one most owners skip because a sale still feels hypothetical.

How they charge

Fixed fee or retainer for a defined program of work. Ask specifically whether the advisor earns anything contingent on a transaction or on products sold to you afterward, because that changes whose interest the advice serves.

What to ask before you hire

• What is your compensation, and do you earn anything if I sell, or from any product I buy afterward?
• What would you have me do in the first ninety days?
• Have you told a client not to sell, and what happened?
• How do you handle the family and shareholder conversations?

How to compare candidates

• Compensation structure is the first question, not the last. A planner paid contingent on a transaction has a view about whether you should transact.
• Look for someone willing to work on the unglamorous items: records, concentration, management depth.
• Ask how they handle the personal side. The ones who avoid it entirely are doing half the job.

The mistake owners make

Starting at the point of deciding to sell. By then the preparation window has closed and every weakness a buyer finds is priced rather than fixed.

What this is not

Not a sell-side banker, who runs the process once you are ready. Not your wealth manager, though they should eventually speak to each other.

The Institute accepts no payment from any advisor, takes no fee tied to any transaction, and does not place or refer professionals for compensation. This entry describes a role, not a recommendation of any firm.