Adamy advisors serve and support countless business owners from startups, mom and pop shops, Main Street businesses, lower-market, middle-market, upper-market, all the way up to public companies. We can safely say a shared experience of all business owners is the relentless self-sacrifice required to run a consistent, stable company you and your family can count on.
There will be the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. There will be sleepless nights and celebratory parties. People will come and go, but a well-run business will live on. The long years add up to something much more than a set of numbers and some cash in the bank. The business becomes a legacy, a source of reputation, dignity and purpose. The business and the business owner can become inseparable, and emotions are real and should be acknowledged.
This intersection of the owner, the business, and what comes next is where Adamy Ownership Planning advisors are most critical. We serve as your advisor on ownership, listening to your goals, wants, and needs, helping you define what freedom means to you. As your trusted guide, we coordinate, create and execute customized roadmaps designed to turn that vision of freedom into reality.
Letting your business go can be difficult. After all, it’s essentially letting go of a piece of who you are, maybe even the biggest piece of who you are. Couple that fear of the unknown with unending busyness and competing priorities, and you have a recipe for a kick-the-can approach to exit planning. We encourage you not to let that happen. Don’t wait for a crisis to force your exit. Exit on your own terms.
Adamy’s Ownership Planning process redefines traditional exit planning. Ownership Planning begins with the belief that your business should ultimately serve your life, not the other way around. That means understanding what matters most to you before deciding what should happen to the business. Financial factors are important, but only in how they serve your values, priorities, and purpose.
Ownership Planning in Practice – Case Study
Consider business owners we’ll call Grandpa and Grandma. After decades of building a successful family business, they know a transition is coming but aren’t sure exactly what it should look like. Adamy’s Ownership Planning process starts by asking a simple question: What does freedom mean to you? In this example, their answer centers on three things: faith, family and legacy.
Faith means making sure their success benefits more than just their family. Giving has always been important to Grandpa and Grandma, and they want their eventual transition to reflect those values. To put those values into action, we helped them and their financial advisors explore a donation of their private-company stock before the sale, creating tax savings that allowed them to direct more of the wealth they spent a lifetime building toward the causes they care about.
Family means making sure the next generation is part of the conversation, not simply part of the plan. Grandpa and Grandma have three adult children, and they want to provide for them without creating entitlement or forcing them into careers with the family business. Our process allowed for and encouraged in-person family meetings, where they learned that the children do not want the responsibility of owning or operating the company. They do, however, value the idea of continuing to own the family real estate together. With everyone aligned, Grandpa and Grandma could begin transferring interests in the real estate entities to their children through a thoughtful combination of gifts and sales, while allowing the operating business to follow a different path.
Legacy means protecting what they spent decades building and being thoughtful about who carries it forward. Grandpa and Grandma care about receiving a fair price, but the highest offer isn’t necessarily the best outcome. They care deeply about the employees who helped build the company, the reputation their family worked hard to earn, and the values of whoever becomes the next owner. They want to know that when they finally step away, they can feel good about who they are leaving the business with. Through our transaction process, we helped Grandpa and Grandma evaluate potential buyers on more than price, ultimately allowing them to select a buyer whose values, reputation and plans for the business aligned with the legacy they wanted to leave behind.
Adamy’s Role
Listen & Understand: We began by developing owner and family profiles and documenting personal, financial and ownership goals. Through discovery meetings, questionnaires and conversations, we worked to understand what Grandpa and Grandma want their lives to look like after the transition, what matters most to them and what they wanted their ownership to accomplish. The result was a clear definition of freedom, rooted in their personal and family values, against which future decisions can be measured.
Measure & Plan: With the family’s objectives established, we turned to the businesses. We performed business and value assessments, evaluated owner and business readiness, and identified the ownership paths realistically available. Adamy’s Exit Options Study and Decision Matrix allowed the family to compare those alternatives using a much broader and more meaningful set of criteria than financial factors alone. On the financial side we modeled the economics of each strategy so Grandpa and Grandma could understand how the pieces work together and what each option would mean for their financial future. Using these tools, we facilitated a decision process that resulted in Grandpa and Grandma identifying the exit path that best fits their priorities.
From there, we created a customized Owner Roadmap to guide Grandpa and Granda all the way through a successful exit. We established priorities, milestones and timing for the charitable contribution, the transfer of real estate interests to the next generation, and the eventual third-party sale of the operating company, while coordinating with the family’s tax, legal, wealth and other advisors. As circumstances changed and new information emerged, the Owner Roadmap was reassessed and refined.
Execute: With a plan in place, we helped turn that Owner Roadmap into action. The real estate interests were transferred to the adult children through a combination of gifts and sales, supported by Adamy’s fair market value analysis and gift tax appraisal. We performed the qualified appraisal needed to support the charitable contribution of their private company stock. At the same time, we prepared the owners and the operating company for a third-party sale.
When the time came to pursue the third-party sale, our role shifted to include transaction modeling, value and deal-structure analysis, LOI evaluation and negotiation support. Throughout the process, we continued coordinating with the family’s key advisors, so the individual strategies remained connected to the larger ownership plan. And when it came time to select a buyer, Grandpa and Grandma didn’t simply accept the highest bidder. They hand-select a third-party buyer they believed would be a responsible steward of the company, its employees and its reputation. Price mattered, but not as much as the other objectives established at the very beginning of the process.
Achieving Freedom: In the end, there isn’t one transaction that defines success. The charitable gift allowed Grandpa and Grandma to share what they built to serve people in ways that were true to their faith. Their children become owners of the family real estate they truly wanted to own, providing them with financial security. The operating company passed to a buyer Grandpa and Grandma chose and trusted to carry forward what they spent decades building. And Grandpa and Grandma got to step away on their own terms, with more time for each other, their family and their grandchildren.
That was their definition of freedom. Adamy’s Ownership Planning provided the roadmap and active support to get there.
Adamy’s Differentiators
- Client Experience: A deep commitment to our clients is at the heart of our core values. We listen first, communicate clearly and boldly deliver insights that inspire trust. Our client experience is built on genuine personal and professional care, something that can be difficult to find in our industry.
- Unique Perspective: We have seen every way a business change can change hands. We have seen what works and what doesn’t. We have seen the negative consequences of ownership transitions that did not consider non-financial factors. We have also had a privileged view into thousands of different companies across industries, giving us unique perspective on the factors that build lasting value and allow owners to exit on their own terms.
- Make the Complex Simple: Ownership decisions are rarely simple. Through comprehensive analysis and practical guidance, we make complex financial, valuation and transaction issues understandable so our clients can make informed decisions with confidence.
- Unbiased Advice: We are advisors on ownership, not advocates for a predetermined outcome. Our advice is driven by our clients’ objectives, not by a need to complete a transaction. We bring independence, integrity and candor to the process, even when that means recommending a different path.
- Qualified Appraisers: Our valuation professionals hold recognized credentials and meet applicable professional standards for the work they perform, including qualified appraisal requirements when applicable. This valuation expertise allows us to support ownership decisions with defensible analysis and, when needed, provide the formal appraisal work required to execute the plan.
- Aligned Fee Structure: Our fees are not contingent upon a transaction closing or any particular outcome. We are compensated for the professional services and value we provide, helping preserve the objectivity that is fundamental to our Ownership Planning process.
What does freedom look like for you?
Whatever the answer, you don’t have to figure out the path alone. Give us a call.
