In my work with business owners, I find these common traits: (1) the business owner has worked very hard for a long time to build the business; (2) often the business owner is not even the highest paid employee; and (3) the business owner’s retirement has been the last to get attention. Somewhere between 10 and 15 years before retirement, the business owner starts to see the retirement light at the end of the tunnel and wonders where the time went.
Explore Options, Find Opportunities
The light at the end of the tunnel does not have to be the train. Owners that have a corporation have opportunities available to them that they often don’t know about. The tax code provides many strategies for owners that would not only accelerate their retirement but provide for a succession plan for the business if they just put it in place. In many cases, these strategies are NOT qualified plans that require the business owner to put the same strategy in place for his or her employees. That means the business owner can fund his or her retirement without bankrupting the business or putting off business expenses that need to be made to keep the business operating. Imagine the power of a strategy like this in a down economy. If there’s less money to go around, not having to fund a plan for employees frees up the money to put toward the business owner’s retirement strategy. The business remains viable and the business owner gets to reap the rewards now and at retirement.
