Insights & Resources
Owning a business changes nearly every part of a financial plan, from how you are paid to how you eventually leave. These articles cover entity structure, owner compensation, retirement plans built for owners, and the mechanics of a sale, written for people who want to understand the decisions rather than just be told the answer.
How a Business Is Valued for Sale: SDE, EBITDA, Multiples, and Terms
How buyers value a private business: SDE vs. EBITDA, add-backs, what sets the multiple, and how deal terms turn a headline price into cash.
Selling Your Business to an ESOP: How the Section 1042 Rollover Works
How selling to an ESOP works in 2026: the Section 1042 rollover rules, qualified replacement property, the S corporation limit, and what ends the deferral.
Asset Sale vs. Stock Sale
Asset sale or stock sale? How deal structure decides whether gain is ordinary or capital, taxed once or twice, and why buyer and seller want opposite answers.
Installment Sales and Earnouts
How installment sales spread business-sale gain across years: Section 453 mechanics, the $5 million interest charge, earnout taxation, and the traps.
Estate Planning Before the Business Sale
Why the estate planning window closes when a buyer names a number, when gifting beats the step-up (and when it doesn't), and the pre-sale toolkit.
Owner Compensation Optimization
Above the reasonable-comp floor, your salary sets payroll tax, QBI, and retirement capacity at once. The optimization most owners never run.
Solo 401(k) vs. SEP IRA vs. Cash Balance
The plan is an output, not a choice: profit, salary, and QBI position pick it for you. The wage-efficiency math, the QBI layer, and the cash balance window.
LLC vs. S Corp vs. C Corp
Entity choice is a modeling question, not a threshold question. How the S election actually works, when the C corporation competes, and what OBBBA changed.
The QBI Deduction in 2026
QBI is a deduction you engineer, not one you claim. The 2026 thresholds, the OBBBA changes, the S-corp salary paradox, and how retirement contributions move it.
Financial Planning for Practice Owners
Doctors, dentists, and chiropractors face a tax problem most business owners don't. Here's how practice owners plan around the QBI/SSTB limits in 2026.
Reasonable Compensation for S-Corp Owners
How S-corp owners can set a defensible reasonable salary under 2026 rules — the payroll tax math, IRS factors, the QBI and retirement plan interactions, court cases, and what to do if you’ve under-paid.
Buy-Sell Agreements After Connelly
The 2024 Connelly Supreme Court decision quietly changed how closely held businesses must structure buy-sell agreements. A deep dive into what changed, the structures still worth considering, and the broader failure modes business owners need to know.