You built the company. You make payroll. You reinvest everything. But when your spouse asks "are we going to be okay?" — can you answer honestly?
No cost. No pressure. No obligation.
A quick note before the framework. Most business owners I talk to are excellent operators with no one running the personal side of the math. The CPA handles taxes. The attorney handles the will. The plan that pulls it all together usually isn't being built by anyone. That's the gap this page is for.
— Jake Song
Four common starting points. Most owners fit more than one — and the order matters.
"Revenue is up but I'm reinvesting everything. No real retirement plan. Paying myself last."
The business eats every dollar it makes. Personal savings flatline. The bet is "the exit will fix it" — but exits take longer than that, and usually for less than expected.
See what's on the table →"Business is good. My personal accounts aren't. Most of my net worth is in one asset."
Cash flow works. The personal balance sheet doesn't. One bad year for the business is one bad year for the family — because there's nothing else holding up the household.
See what you actually own →"Thinking about selling, transitioning, or stepping back in the next 2–10 years."
Exit planning takes years, not months. The strategies with the biggest tax impact have the longest setup times. By the time a deal is in front of you, most of those doors have closed.
See the exit timeline →"My partner runs the business. I don't have full visibility. I want to know my family is protected."
In most business-owner families, one person lives inside the numbers and the other knows the broad strokes. The conversation that hasn't happened yet is the one worth having.
This section is for you →"We're worth five million on paper" is rarely "five million in liquid wealth." The discount for illiquidity, market timing, and buyer availability can be substantial.
A plan changes the shape of the balance sheet over time. Slowly. Deliberately. Without starving the business that's still doing the work.
One bad year for the business
is one bad year for the family.
The business is still the engine
but not the entire balance sheet.
Each one quietly erodes wealth that the business is otherwise generating just fine.
The split between salary, distributions, and retirement contributions is one of the most consequential — and least examined — decisions on the table. Most owners default to the structure their CPA's software set up in year one.
Worth knowing: reasonable-compensation rules constrain the answer. Within those rules, the split most owners use has rarely been revisited against current IRS guidance or the family's actual cash needs.
Tradeoff: higher salary buys retirement-plan contribution room. Lower salary buys near-term cash. Both are levers — most owners pull neither.
Most owners are using a SEP IRA, a solo 401(k), or nothing. Layered designs — like a solo 401(k) combined with a cash balance plan — can shelter materially more for owners who qualify.
Worth knowing: layered plans aren't free or simple. They require actuarial work, plan administration, and a multi-year commitment. They're not for everyone — but they're for more people than they're used by.
Tradeoff: more tax shelter, more complexity. More employees, higher plan cost (because their accounts get funded too).
For most owners, the business is the single largest item on the balance sheet — and the single most illiquid. A plan built around an asset you can't easily sell looks different from a plan built around liquid assets.
Worth knowing: "we're worth $5M on paper" is rarely "$5M in liquid wealth." Illiquidity, market timing, and buyer-availability all discount the number.
Tradeoff: pulling cash out now (lower growth, more personal liquidity) vs. leaving it in (higher growth, all eggs in one basket).
Key-person events. Partner buyouts. Lawsuits. Illness. Any one of these can destabilize the business and the family at the same time — and most owners insure the wrong side.
Worth knowing: the asymmetry runs against you. Owners over-insure the physical risks (property, general liability) and under-insure the human ones (key-person, disability, partner-exit). Both matter; one matters more.
Tradeoff: coverage costs real premium dollars now. Uncovered events cost the family the business and the inheritance both.
For owners 2–10 years from transition. The strategies with the biggest tax impact — QSBS treatment, charitable trusts, installment sales, ESOPs — require the longest setup. By the time a deal is on your desk, most of those doors have already closed.
Worth knowing: exit planning isn't chapter 7. It's chapter 4. By chapter 7 the structures you'd most want are no longer available — they had to be set up years earlier.
Tradeoff: plan early and pay for advisory time you may not need. Plan late and pay the tax bill you didn't expect.
I work with your CPA, not around them. The point is that someone is building the forward-looking plan — not just filing the backward-looking return.
Looking backward.
A CPA's role is accurate tax reporting. Essential. Not the same as building a wealth plan.
What the next ten years actually looks like.
A fiduciary advisor, in advisory capacity, is required to act in your interest. Not a product manufacturer's.
We won't look at your books or your business financials. I won't ask for revenue numbers. We'll talk about your business, your family, what's in the picture. If it's a fit, we'll talk again. If not, you'll still leave with clarity.
Schedule a callNo cost. No pressure. No obligation.
In most business-owner families, one person lives inside the numbers every day and the other knows the broad strokes. Not the details.
Here's what matters: how much of your family's retirement depends on a successful business sale? What happens if the sale doesn't happen — or happens for less than expected? What does your family's financial life look like if your partner can't work for six months?
These aren't questions to ask during a crisis. They're questions to answer together, now, while there's time to plan. The 30-minute call works better when both partners are on the line.
No paperwork. We talk about your business, the family picture, what's keeping you up.
Still no documents. I walk you through how I'd approach your specific situation — alongside your CPA where it matters.
Now we look at documents — together. The written plan. Implementation. Quarterly check-ins.
Financial Advisor, McCune Whiteley
Austin-based. Korean immigrant, Queens-raised. Five years U.S. Air Force. Six years at MWWM. Series 7, 65, 66 · Life & Health · CFP® Candidate.
More about how I workFort Worth, founded 2009 by Cory McCune and Bret Whiteley. 300+ households through every market cycle since. Cory and Bret have worked with business owners across professional services, healthcare, manufacturing, and the trades. I'm part of their team.
Founded
Households
Advisory cap.
Neither are most of the owners I work with. Exit planning is chapter 4, not chapter 1. Compensation, plan design, and risk protection come first — and matter regardless of whether you ever sell.
Your CPA is essential — I coordinate with them, not around them. CPAs file taxes; planners build the plan. Most engagements involve a three-way conversation with your CPA early.
That's exactly why this call exists. I work with owners across professional services, healthcare, manufacturing, and the trades — each with a different set of complications. Thirty minutes to understand yours, and tell you honestly whether there are gaps worth addressing.
Your insurance agent focuses on coverage. Coverage isn't a plan. The plan coordinates insurance with your investments, retirement funding, tax strategy, and exit timeline so each piece reinforces the others — instead of being sold separately.
We won't look at your books. I won't ask for revenue numbers. The conversation is about whether the planning side is being built — not about what the business made last year.
Austin, TX · Remote welcome