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.
S Corp Profits Interest: The F Reorganization Path for Key Employees
An S corporation can't grant a profits interest directly. How the F reorganization works, the tax-free safe harbor, and what changes for the employee.
Selling Your Business to Key Employees: The Seller-Financed Buyout
How a seller-financed sale to key employees works in 2026: setting the price, writing the note, whether the business can carry it, and the tax on each side.
S Corporation One Class of Stock Rule: What Breaks It, How to Fix It
What creates a second class of stock in an S corporation, why disproportionate distributions still matter, and how a broken election gets fixed in 2026.
Key Employee Ownership: Five Ways to Share Equity and the Tax on Each
Five ways to give a key employee equity in a private company or S corporation, how each one is taxed, and what to settle before anyone signs.
IDGT Sale: Selling Shares to an Intentionally Defective Grantor Trust
How a sale to an intentionally defective grantor trust works in 2026: the seed gift, the note, the appraisal, the risks, and who still needs one.
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 retirement contributions.
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 corporation owners set a defensible salary in 2026: the payroll tax math, the IRS factors, the QBI and retirement plan links, and the court cases.
Buy-Sell Agreements After Connelly
What the 2024 Connelly decision changed for buy-sell agreements, the structures still worth considering, and the drafting mistakes owners make.