For business owners
On our first call, by phone or Zoom, we’ll look at how you pay yourself, how the business is protected and what you want from it someday, and name the three things worth doing first. They’re yours whether or not we work together.
How ready is your business to sell, or to hand off?
Why Oakwater
Every owner exits someday, so we start with the finish line and work backward. Protect what you’ve built, grow it toward the number you’d need to walk away, and plan the exit on your timeline, coordinated with your CPA and attorney.
Protect
Help keep one bad year from undoing what you’ve built
Grow
Fund the business’s growth without shortchanging your household
My promise: As a fiduciary, if you pay me to manage your money, I should keep earning it. I look for opportunities all year, not just at your annual review, and bring them to you first. When something falls outside my licenses, I’ll bring in the right CPA, attorney or specialist and work alongside them.
Who we help
Most of your net worth is tied up in the company, and your personal finances get whatever is left over.
The business throws off real cash. Now the questions are how much to take out, where to put it and what happens when you step back.
The problem
Most owners we meet are great at running a company. Their own finances get whatever time is left.
Most of your net worth sits in a single asset that you can’t easily sell or borrow against.
Paying yourself whatever is left makes it hard to save, plan or even know your real income.
Agreements that were never funded or updated can fall apart the moment they’re needed.
If you couldn’t work for six months, would the business, and your household, keep going?
Many owners use the same plan as their employees when other plan designs could let them save much more.
Most owners plan to sell someday. Few know what the business is worth or what they’d need from a sale.
The fix isn’t more products. It’s one plan, with someone keeping every piece pointed the same direction.
The Oakwater approach
A business doesn’t move in a straight line, and neither does its plan. Protection, growth and your exit all shape each other, and some exit decisions need years to work. So we work on all three together, and revisit them as the business changes.
From day one
Key person coverage, a funded buy-sell agreement, owner disability and a clean line between business and personal money. If something happens to you, the goal is for the business and your family to keep going.
Every year
A business grows when the people in it do. We can help you build pay and benefits that reward your team for doing well for the company, alongside how you pay yourself, reserves for the business and the household, and owner retirement plans. Coordinated with your CPA.
Years before a sale
Wealth outside the business, so everything isn’t riding on one asset, and a plan for the eventual exit: a sale, a family handoff or a sale to employees. Many of the moves that shape an exit take years to work, so the best time to start is years before a sale. We coordinate with your CPA, attorney and M&A advisor.
Your advisor
I’m the advisor behind Oakwater Advisors. The two things I love most are the outdoors and financial planning, so I built something that represents both.
An oak grows slowly and is built for storms it hasn’t seen yet. Water does the opposite: it keeps moving and finds a way through. A good plan needs both: foundations that barely change, and money inside them that keeps working.
Resources
Guides for paying yourself, selling your business and retiring, plus a cash-flow guide and a calculator.
What private equity buyers usually want, how to decide what you want, and how an offer’s price is really built, before you sign a letter of intent.
18 yes-or-not-yet questions on the steps that take years, not months, to get right.
Salary vs. distributions, and the retirement plans built for business owners.
Why your savings rate matters more than your returns, and how to set up a Reservoir in five steps.
Enter your income, what you save and your time frame. Compare your current path with a Reservoir in under a minute.
The 4 Bucket Strategy, organized into Protect, Harness and Deploy, with a countdown from 10 years out and a checklist and scorecard at the end.
It might be, but it’s a big bet on one asset, one sale price and one buyer. Building wealth outside the business can help keep your future from depending on a single transaction.
Yes. Owner pay, plan design and exit planning all touch tax and legal questions, so we coordinate with your CPA and attorney to keep everyone’s advice pointed the same direction. We don’t prepare returns or draft legal documents.
Owners of closely held businesses, from owner-operators to established companies with a team. We also specialize in physician assistants. See planning for PAs.
Earlier than most owners think. Getting a business ready to sell or hand off can take several years, and many of the best moves need time to work.
Financial planning is fee-based, and the fee is quoted up front, in writing, before any work begins. If we also manage investments or help with insurance, we’ll explain exactly how we’re paid for each. OneAmerica Securities’ Form ADV Part 2 and Form CRS have the details.
It’s a conversation by phone or Zoom. We talk about where you are and what’s on your mind, and you leave knowing whether working together makes sense. No prep needed.
Get started
Pick a time for a call. We’ll talk about where you are and what you’re working toward.
Pick a time that works for you. By phone or Zoom, no prep needed.
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