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Dawn Jinsky, partner at Plante Moran

Financial Planning > UHNW Client Services

Avoid These Big ‘Retirement’ Mistakes Business-Owner Clients Make

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An ongoing swell of private equity investment activity in markets across the United States is helping a sizable number of successful entrepreneurs sell their closely held businesses for impressive sums.

In the extensive experience of Dawn Jinsky, partner and leader of estate and business transition planning at the wealth management firm Plante Moran, there has probably never been a busier time to be a financial professional focused on such matters.

In addition to the influence of private equity capital, broad demographic trends are also propelling significant liquidity event activity, Jinsky recently told ThinkAdvisor. Simply put, the baby boomer generation is rapidly approaching and entering retirement, and a significant number of clients have a substantial portion of their wealth tied up in closely held businesses.

This situation necessitates a liquidity event as part of the client’s transition to retirement, Jinsky explains, and getting the process right is not always a straightforward affair. From the potential to launch an employee stock ownership plan to the need to direct money carefully inside and outside the estate, a lot of planning prowess is required to achieve the best outcomes.

What’s more, Jinsky warns, it’s not just big tax and estate planning matters that need to be considered. Clients must also think carefully about their anticipated lifestyle post-sale and “what retirement is actually going to mean to them” after a career spent growing and nurturing a business.

“Advisors who can help steward clients through this whole process are going to be highly valued,” Jinsky says. “I agree with all the advisors out there who say their clients are looking for more from their advisors than ever before, including in business transition planning. It’s an exciting moment, but challenging too.”

Getting the Transition Right Takes Time

Broadly speaking, Jinsky says, clients and advisors who aren’t accustomed to doing this work have a tendency to look at liquidity events as just that — a one-time occurrence that can be planned for and executed in a short timeframe.

“In reality the opposite is true,” Jinsky says. “The best outcomes are achieved with an extensive amount of pre-planning, often over the course of at least a number of years. For example, very early on, you need to evaluate your estate plan and determine if you have an opportunity to make stock transfers prior to the liquidity event.”

As Jinsky points out, people often assume they can make stock transfers, whether to a charity or an heir, as part of the liquidity event. In practice, in addition to not being the most tax-efficient approach, this often just complicates the transaction, and in some cases it may not be possible at all.

“Often, you can’t really do the gifting of stock after a letter of intent is signed, for example,” Jinsky warns. “Generally, the closer to the liquidity event, the less feasible gifting stock becomes, so this is one of the things you really should be doing early on.”

Another key is to help the client clearly evaluate how their financial position will change after the liquidity event, and how they will be spending their time. On the one hand, the client will very likely be sitting on a new and significant pile of wealth, but that doesn’t mean they can just start spending freely without a plan or budgetary discipline.

Of course, if a client sells a highly successful business and generates tens or hundreds of millions of dollars, that’s one thing. But many people will sell a business for still-meaningful, but more modest, sums, and they will have to think carefully about how to make their liquid wealth last for a retirement that could be three decades or longer.

“People often underestimate their expenses post-sale, in part because a lot of their pre-retirement expenses might have been fully or partly covered by the business — everything from transportation to health insurance,” Jinsky explains.

Efficiency in Charitable Giving

In addition to business transition planning, Jinsky says, clients are also seeking support with tax-efficient charitable giving.

In Jinsky’s experience, many clients will be well-served by utilizing donor-advised funds as a primary vehicle for their gifting activities. The main advantages of DAFs continue to be their ease of use, she says, as well as their ability to accept donations of both liquid and illiquid assets.

As Jinsky points out, most charities today recognize that they receive larger donations from DAF donors than from other donors who donate cash or publicly traded stock. This is because the donors already received a tax deduction when they donated to the DAF and thus have a large pool of assets that can only be granted to charitable organizations.

“We do a lot of evaluation of DAFs and foundations,” Jinsky explains. “Oftentimes, a client will say they want to start a foundation, but they actually don’t need a foundation for what they want to accomplish. Giving is often more streamlined and less costly through a DAF.”

On the other hand, if a super-wealthy client plans to give, say, $100 million or more, that’s probably worthy of a foundation, Jinsky says.

Trust Considerations

Echoing the warnings of other estate-planning experts, Jinsky points out that, in 2026, the gift, estate and generation-skipping trust exemption will be cut in half as the temporary increase enacted as part of the 2017 tax overhaul expires. The exemption currently stands at around $13 million for individuals and $26 million for couples.

“As a result, wealthy clients who haven’t maximized their use of the exemption may want to try to do so before the cut is made,” she warns. “They have a lot of different ways to pursue this goal, but one interesting trend I’m seeing is a resurgence in the use of spousal lead access trusts, or SLATs.”

According to Jinsky, SLATs are becoming a “tool of choice” for wealthy married couples who want to take advantage of the current estate exemption before the 2026 sunset. She says SLATs can work especially well for advisors’ $1 million to $10 million clients.

“Regardless of which type of trust we are talking about, having one member of the couple max out their exemption under today’s higher limit will leave the other spouse’s limit intact,” Jinsky explains. “This way, if the exemption is cut in half in 2026, one member of the couple will still have their $6 million lifetime limit to work with.”

Dawn Jinsky, partner at Plante Moran. Photo: Plante Moran


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