Paying yourself with intention
Turning an irregular draw into a deliberate structure for salary, distributions, and reserves, so your household has a steady footing even when the business does not.
Who I ServeFor the owner whose finances
For the owner whose finances
are never just personal
When you own a business, your income, your taxes, your retirement, and most of your net worth are tied to the same thing. Planning for one without the others rarely works.
Who This Is For
Owners who want the
business to serve the life
I grew up around family businesses. My family has been running them in Central Florida for generations, so I know what it looks like when the company's month becomes the household's month. Most of the owners I work with have spent years building something that works. What they have not always had is a clear view of how the business fits into their personal financial picture, or a plan for what comes after it. These are some of the situations that tend to bring people to my door.
- You pay yourself whatever is left over, and it changes from month to month
- Most of your net worth is inside the company, and you would like some of it outside
- You have a retirement plan at the business, or wonder whether you should
- Your accountant handles the taxes, but no one is coordinating the bigger picture
- A sale, a succession, or a partner transition is somewhere on the horizon
- You want one person who understands both the business and the family behind it
What I Help With
Where the business and
the plan meet
Every owner's situation is different, but the work tends to fall into a few recurring areas. I coordinate these alongside your accountant and attorney rather than replacing them.
Owner retirement plans
Understanding the range of plans available to a business, from a simple IRA-based plan to a 401(k) or defined benefit arrangement, and how each fits your goals, your staff, and your cash flow.
Building wealth outside the business
Steadily moving value out of the company and into assets you control personally, so your future does not depend entirely on one enterprise.
Concentration risk
Looking honestly at how much of your financial life rides on a single company, industry, or customer, and what a measured approach to reducing that exposure could look like.
Tax coordination
Working with your CPA so that entity structure, compensation, retirement contributions, and personal planning are pulling in the same direction rather than in isolation.
Exit and succession
Thinking through a sale, a transfer to family, or a buyout by partners years before it happens, so the decision is made on your timeline rather than someone else's.
Worth Understanding
A primer on the owner’s
financial life
Business owners face a handful of questions that employees never have to think about. This section walks through the main ones in general terms. It is background, not a recommendation for any particular situation.
Why owner finances are different
For an employee, income arrives on a schedule, taxes are withheld, and retirement savings happen through a plan someone else administers. For an owner, every one of those things is a decision. How much to pay yourself, how much to leave in the business, when to fund retirement, and how to handle taxes all land on the same desk, usually yours.
The other difference is concentration. An owner's income, retirement, and net worth often depend on the same company. That is a natural result of building something, but it means a rough year for the business can touch every part of the family's finances at once. Much of owner-focused planning is about creating some separation between the two.
Compensation and cash flow
How an owner is paid depends partly on how the business is organized. A sole proprietor or single-member LLC generally takes draws. An owner of an S corporation typically receives a salary plus distributions, and the IRS expects that salary to be reasonable for the work performed. A C corporation pays its owners as employees and may also pay dividends. Each structure has its own tax treatment, which is one reason entity choice and compensation are usually discussed together with a CPA.
Separately from structure, many owners find it useful to set a consistent personal draw and to keep an operating reserve inside the business. A steady draw makes household planning possible. A reserve gives the business room to absorb a slow quarter without the owner's personal finances taking the hit.
Retirement plans available to a business
A business can sponsor several kinds of retirement plans, and they differ in contribution limits, cost, administrative work, and whether employees must be included. In broad strokes, the common options are:
- SEP IRA: employer contributions only, simple to set up, and contributions must generally be made for eligible employees at the same percentage as for the owner.
- SIMPLE IRA: allows employee salary deferrals with a required employer contribution, designed for smaller businesses with modest administration.
- Solo 401(k): for a business with no employees other than the owner and a spouse, combining employee deferrals and employer contributions.
- 401(k) with profit sharing: a full plan for businesses with staff, with more flexibility in design and more administrative requirements.
- Defined benefit or cash balance plan: promises a future benefit rather than a contribution, which can allow larger contributions for older owners with stable income, at the cost of complexity and ongoing funding obligations.
Concentration and diversification
Concentration is not a flaw. It is how most businesses get built, and the owner's willingness to bet on themselves is usually why the company exists. The planning question is not whether to be concentrated, but how much, and for how long.
Owners often address this gradually: funding a retirement plan, holding personal investments that do not depend on the business, keeping personal reserves separate from company reserves, and, where relevant, reviewing how much depends on a single customer, supplier, or key person. The aim is a household that could withstand a difficult stretch in the business without having to make hurried decisions.
Taxes and coordination
Tax planning for an owner spans two returns and often more than one adviser. Entity structure, reasonable compensation, retirement plan contributions, the timing of income and expenses, and the qualified business income deduction all interact. Individually they are the accountant's territory. Collectively they shape the personal plan, which is why a wealth advisor and a CPA tend to work best when they are talking to each other.
Florida has no state income tax on individuals, which simplifies one layer of the picture for owners who live here. Federal rules still apply in full, and businesses with operations in other states may have obligations there.
Preparing for an exit or succession
Every owner eventually leaves the business, whether by selling it, passing it to family, transferring it to partners or employees, or closing it. The outcomes tend to be better when the plan is made years in advance rather than months.
Common threads in exit planning include understanding what the business might be worth and what drives that value, cleaning up financial records, reducing the company's dependence on the owner personally, and thinking through what the proceeds need to accomplish for the family afterward. For businesses with partners, a buy-sell agreement that spells out what happens on death, disability, or departure, and how it would be funded, is a frequent topic.
A transfer to the next generation raises its own questions: whether the successors want the business, how to treat children who are not involved, and how to structure the transfer for estate and gift tax purposes. These are legal and tax matters that an attorney and CPA lead, with the financial plan providing the context.
This section is general education. It is not tax, legal, or investment advice, and it does not describe what is appropriate for any particular business or owner. Decisions about entity structure, compensation, retirement plans, and business transfers should be made with your accountant and attorney.
Before We Talk
Common questions
Do you replace my accountant or attorney?
No. Your CPA prepares the returns and your attorney handles the legal documents. My role is to see the whole picture, personal and business, and to coordinate with them so the pieces fit together.
My business is small. Is this still relevant?
Size matters less than the questions you are facing. An owner with two employees still has to decide how to pay themselves, whether to set up a retirement plan, and what happens to the business one day. Those questions are the same at any scale.
I am years away from selling. When should I start thinking about it?
Earlier than most people expect. Many of the things that shape an eventual exit, like clean records, a business that runs without you, and personal wealth outside the company, take years to build. Starting early keeps your options open.
Can you help me choose a retirement plan for my business?
I can walk you through how the different plan types work, what they cost, and how they treat employees, and coordinate with your CPA and a plan administrator on the specifics. The choice itself depends on your business, your staff, and your goals.
What does the first conversation look like?
Thirty minutes, no preparation needed. We talk about the business, the family behind it, and what is on your mind. From there you will have a sense of whether working together makes sense.
Do I need to bring financial statements to the first call?
No. If we decide to work together, we will gather what is needed then. The first call is a conversation, not a review.
Looking for a different group? See everyone I work with.
Let’s look at the business and the life behind it.
A 30-minute conversation is the simplest way to see whether my approach fits the way you run your business. No preparation and no obligation.