Time to sell the business

Clients: Mark (63) & Janice (58)

Primary Goals: Purchase a vacation home, generate a reliable retirement income stream, maximize spending in retirement.

Background:

Mark and Janice recently received an offer they can’t refuse to purchase the home remodeling business they built together 30 years ago. The line of work was starting to take a physical toll on Mark so the offer was timely. Mark and Janice have three kids. One is still a dependent living at home and the others are married and doing well. Mark and Janice felt confident that they would pass some assets to their children but coming up with a specific goal was a low priority.

Approach:

Mark and Janice focused all of their attention on their family and running a successful business. Planning for retirement was a new concept for them. They were very transparent in letting us know that they will only work with an advisor who has the patience and the ability to educate them and explain complex retirement planning strategies that they recommend. They were in the initial stages of selling their business and needed to come up with a plan for the proceeds because it would serve as their primary retirement nest egg.

Per usual, we started by gathering information to put together a comprehensive Retize WYZE Assesment. When we got together to present the assessment, instead of just making high level recommendations about how much home they could afford or how much they could spend without running out of money, we took the approach of explaining the analysis, assumptions, and stress tests that lead to our final recommendations. By the end of the conversation, Mark and Janice left with an understanding of how their plan was built which helped them understand the broader retirement planning concepts.

Results:

The initial solutions we recommended benefited Mark and Janice in a few ways:

  1. We referred them to our team of legal experts that were able to write a sales contract and help them close on the sale of their business.
  2. Their Retire WYZE assessment had a budget built in to prevent overspending on their vacation home.
  3. We reviewed the retirement income sources and taxability of each to develop a withdrawal strategy that would and minimize taxes and maximize their spending in retirement without the risk of running out of money.

Mark and Janice ended up purchasing a vacation home in Hilton Head, SC. They have been retired for five years now and couldn’t be happier.