Close to three-quarters of privately held business owners expect to transition or exit their companies within the next decade. Together, those exits could unlock an estimated $10 trillion to $14 trillion in wealth. For Michael Gold, Founder and CEO of Gold Family Wealth in Westport, Connecticut, the numbers point to one urgent need: preparation.
Families that approach a sale or succession without enough planning often pay for it. Unnecessary taxes, poorly chosen legal structures, and investment approaches that do not match a family’s goals can cost millions.
Winning Before the Battle
Gold often turns to Sun Tzu’s The Art of War to make his point. His favorite line from the text holds that “Every battle is won or lost BEFORE it is ever fought.”
For business owners, that means the hard work happens long before closing day. The Westport firm’s ultra-high-net-worth practice uses frameworks that include advanced modeling and coordinated planning across multiple entities, so that tax, legal, and investment decisions get made together instead of piecemeal.
Michael Gold Westport also stresses that preparation should eventually lead to action. Endless deliberation can be just as costly as rushing, and a well-built plan gives an owner the confidence to move when the moment arrives.
The Cost of Waiting
A business exit is often the largest liquidity event a family will ever experience. Waiting until a buyer appears leaves little room to restructure ownership, plan for taxes, or line up investments with what the family wants next.
Michael Gold’s approach begins with a full review of the client’s situation. That means understanding the business, the family, the net worth statement, investments, tax exposure, and the children who may one day inherit. Only then does the firm look for gaps, red flags, and missed opportunities.
Owners in Westport and elsewhere face the same basic choice. They can treat an exit as a single transaction, or they can treat it as the culmination of years of planning. Gold’s view, rooted in that Sun Tzu line, is that the outcome is largely decided by which path a family chooses well before the deal is signed. Refer to this article to learn more.
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