SS
San Diego
Scott Stevens
Lead Advisor · CEPA
Business Exit Planning
Two decades guiding founders through the sale of the company they built. Focused on the years before the LOI and the decade after wire day.
The closing is a single day. The financial decisions that determine what the closing actually buys you happen across the three years before it. We help business owners get those years right.
For most owners, the business is the largest asset on the balance sheet — and the one with the least liquidity, the most concentration, and the most tax embedded in the basis. Selling it well is rarely about price alone. It's about what's left when the wire clears.
The decisions that matter most are made before the LOI: how the business is owned, what's been gifted, which trusts exist, how QSBS applies, what the post-close cash flow looks like, and whether the founder's identity has anywhere to land.
We don't run the deal. We run the financial plan around it — coordinated with your M&A advisor, CPA, and attorney so the deal terms and the life plan agree.
A starting checklist. Not exhaustive — a place to begin.
The optionality is highest at 36 months. By month 12, half the levers are gone. We work in the window where decisions still matter.
We don't replace your M&A advisor or CPA — we make sure the financial plan, tax plan, and deal terms agree. One coordinated voice.
Investment policy, philanthropic strategy, and a calendar for the first 12 months of liquid life. The plan starts the day after closing.
Two decades guiding founders through the sale of the company they built. Focused on the years before the LOI and the decade after wire day.
12 things to do in the 36 months before you sell — written for owners, not advisors.