Entity structure & tax
S-corp, C-corp, partnership, or sole prop. The right structure depends on your profit, your payroll, and where the business is headed, and it is worth revisiting as you grow rather than setting once and forgetting.
Your business and your household,
on one plan.
Business owners carry a different kind of financial complexity. Compensation, retirement-plan design, succession, and the eventual exit all ripple across both your company and your family. We advise both sides at once, with one team that sees the business return and the personal one.
For most owners, the business and the personal balance sheet are handled by different people who never talk. Your CPA files the business return. A separate advisor manages the 401(k). No one is looking at the whole board.
So the salary that should be tuned to your retirement plan is not. The exit that should have been structured three years early gets structured three weeks before closing. None of it is dramatic in the moment, and all of it is expensive by the end.
We sit on both sides at once. Your entity, your owner compensation, your retirement plan, your investments, and your tax plan get designed together. When something changes in the company, we already know what it does to your household, and the other way around.
A business is also a place you steward people and resources, not just profit. We help owners build generosity into the company's plan and think clearly about what it means to hand off something you built well, to family or to a buyer, in a way that honors the people who helped you build it.
Where we help owners
One team across the business and the household, so the two stop working against each other.
Owner compensation
For S-corp owners, the split between a reasonable salary and distributions drives your payroll taxes and your retirement contributions. We tune it to your actual numbers, not a rule of thumb.
Retirement plan design
SEP-IRA, SIMPLE, Solo 401(k), or a defined-benefit plan for an older, high-earning owner who wants to shelter far more, later. The right plan depends on your employees, your age, and how much you want to put away.
Buy-sell agreements
Review and funding, so that a partner's death, disability, or departure does not threaten the business or your family. Most agreements we see are out of date or unfunded.
Succession & exit
Planning the handoff years in advance, including the tax bill at sale. An unplanned exit is where owners lose the most, and almost none of the moves that reduce it can be made at the last minute.
Fractional CFO
Ongoing financial leadership for a growing business that is not ready for a full-time CFO: cash-flow visibility, clean books, and a forward plan instead of a rear-view mirror.
Common questions
Should I elect to be an S-corp?
Often, once profit is high enough that the payroll-tax savings on distributions outweigh the added cost and payroll requirements. We model it on your real numbers before recommending it, because below a certain profit it is not worth the complexity.
How much should I pay myself?
Enough to count as reasonable compensation in the eyes of the IRS, and structured so your retirement-plan contributions and payroll taxes land where they should. It is a planning decision with real tax consequences, not a number you set once.
What retirement plan makes sense for my business?
It depends on whether you have employees, how much you want to contribute, and your age. A Solo 401(k) fits an owner with no employees; a SEP or SIMPLE can suit a small team; a defined-benefit plan can shelter the most for an older owner with strong, steady profit.
When should I start planning my exit?
Years before you sell. The largest and most avoidable cost in a business sale is the tax bill, and most of the structuring that reduces it has to happen well in advance of a closing.
Will you work with my existing attorney?
Yes. We handle the CPA and planning work ourselves and coordinate with your attorney on entity and succession documents, so the legal, tax, and financial pieces actually agree with each other.
Let's see if we're a fit.
A fifteen-minute call is enough to find out. No pressure, and no second meeting if the answer is no.
Schedule a discovery call