How a Financial Advisor Can Help with the Sale of Your Business

Selling a business is one of the most significant financial events in an owner’s life. It's not only a legal and operational transaction, it's also a major personal wealth event that requires thoughtful planning before the sale and disciplined management of the proceeds afterward.

Adding a skilled financial advisor to your deal team can help a business owner extract the wealth they have created for their next phase in life. The right advisor helps the owner prepare for the sale, models different financial scenarios, and creates a post-closing strategy that supports the owner’s long-term financial and lifestyle goals.

This article explains how a financial or wealth advisor can help business owners who are planning to sell.

Preparing and Planning Before the Sale

Financial advisors help business owners prepare for a sale well before it goes to market. Some of the most valuable contributions include:

• Establishing Personal Financial Goals. Before a business owner can decide what they need financially from a sale, they must understand what they want their future to look like. Advisors help owners identify specific lifestyle goals. These might include desired retirement age, annual living expenses, charitable giving plans, travel expectations, or legacy goals for children and grandchildren. Clear goals provide the owner with a benchmark against which to evaluate potential offers. Advisors often spend more time with their clients than any other professional on the deal team when an owner is considering selling, so their input can be valuable in guiding an owner through an exit.

  
  

• Modeling “Net-Net” Numbers. Many owners do not know how much money they need to maintain their lifestyle after selling the business. A financial advisor can prepare budgets, cash-flow forecasts, retirement projections, and tax-adjusted net proceeds calculations. These models help the owner understand what purchase price they need to meet their long-term objectives. This analysis gives the owner confidence when evaluating offers and allows them to input “net-net” figures to provide accurate forecasting.

  
  

• Stress-Testing Different Deal Structures. The structure of a deal can affect the owner’s after-tax proceeds. Equity versus asset sales, earnouts, seller financing, escrow holdbacks, and contingent payments can all influence the owner’s financial picture. A buyer may propose a certain deal structure. A financial advisor can model best- and worst-case outcomes for different structures. This allows the owner to negotiate with a full understanding of how each structure affects their future plans.

  
  

• Planning for Tax Efficiency. Advisors work alongside tax professionals to estimate the owner’s likely tax liability from the receipt of the purchase price. They help the owner develop strategies to reduce or defer taxes. This may include working with the owner’s CPA to consider retirement contributions, charitable giving techniques, or other long-term tax strategies. Advanced planning often results in a more favorable after-tax result, and many times can only be successfully executed with a well-crafted plan.

  
  

• Preparing a Pre-Sale Personal Balance Sheet. A financial advisor helps the owner organize their personal financial information. This preparation is useful when the owner works with their mergers & acquisitions lawyer, tax advisor, or estate planning lawyer. Organizing personal assets makes it easier to coordinate planning across all professional advisors.

Engage Sooner, Not Later

Engaging a financial advisor early in the sale process can help an owner determine the right timing and exit plan for their business. By identifying personal and financial goals, an advisor can help tie back the sale of a business to accomplishing short-term and long-term priorities.

Managing the Sales Proceeds After Closing

Once the business is sold, the owner’s attention shifts from closing the deal to managing the wealth created by the sale. The following are some examples of how a financial advisor can help the owner protect the proceeds and put them to work:

• Creating an Investment Plan. The owner’s priorities change once they are no longer running a business or drawing income from it. Advisors help the owner establish a diversified investment strategy tailored to the owner’s risk tolerance, liquidity needs, and long-term goals. They help the owner resist the pressure to make rash investment decisions during the emotional period following a sale, and can help keep the owner focused on the big picture.

  
  

• Establishing a Sustainable Withdrawal Strategy. If the owner plans to live off the proceeds, the advisor helps determine how much the owner can safely withdraw each year. This helps protect the owner from depleting their funds too quickly. Sustainable withdrawal strategies support a secure retirement.

  
  

• Coordinating With Other Advisors. After a sale, business owners often revisit or update their estate plans. A financial advisor can help coordinate this work with the owner’s estate planning lawyer, tax professional, and insurance advisors. This coordination supports a cohesive plan and avoids gaps in protection.

  
  

• Supporting Family Financial Planning. Many owners use sale proceeds to help children or grandchildren with education, home purchases, or legacy planning. Advisors help structure these gifts in a way that supports the owner’s goals and preserves family harmony.

  
  

• Managing Liquidity and Cash Flow. Owners sometimes receive sale proceeds in stages, particularly when deals include earnouts or seller financing. Advisors help manage cash reserves, short-term investment strategies, and contingency funds. This helps the owner maintain stability while longer-term funds remain invested.

Choosing the Right Advisor

Business owners should seek an advisor who understands the unique challenges of selling a closely held business. Some advisors focus specifically on investment management, while others have a broader range of expertise. A skilled advisor asks thoughtful questions, pressure tests the owner’s assumptions, and works collaboratively with the owner’s attorney and CPA. A good advisor looks past a transactional relationship and aligns with a longer-term client to grow over many years. While collaboration with other trusted advisors may seem obvious, an inexperienced advisor can create issues or offer conflicting advice if they aren’t communicating with others involved in the deal. Owners should look for an advisor with experience guiding clients through liquidity events and a clear, transparent fee structure. Owners should also seek out advisors who are a part of a team that can offer more services to their clients.

The sale of a business creates opportunity but also new responsibilities. With the support of a strong financial advisor, a business owner can turn the sale of a business into a solid foundation for a secure and satisfying next chapter. While many interactions with lawyers and CPAs may occur prior to and during the sale, after the exit, the advisor may stay involved in the relationship for several generations in some cases.

About the Authors

Joel Ankney is The Sell-Side Lawyer. He leverages over 30 years of experience to help business owners throughout the USA navigate the process of selling their businesses, extracting the wealth they have created, so they can move confidently to the next stage of their lives.

Joel loves to talk about business deals. If you want to explore selling your business with Joel, you can contact him at joel@sellsidelawyer.com.

Curtis Hanson is a Financial Advisor at UBS Financial Services, Inc. and a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNING Professional. He is part of a wealth management team that focuses on holistic wealth management and multi-generational wealth planning. Curtis’ practice also offers specialized resources for business owners, including presale planning and business valuation services.

If you are interested in a conversation to learn about what other business owners are asking their advisors, you can contact Curtis at curtis.hanson@UBS.com.