From Valuation to Action: Helping Business Owners Make Confident Exit Decisions

Industry

Wealth Management & Financial Planning

Challenge

Todd was working with a business owner preparing for an exit who wanted greater confidence before moving forward. While the client had an estimate of the business’s value, Todd needed an objective way to validate expectations and connect the decision to the client’s broader financial plan.

Results

A defensible valuation gave the client confidence to move forward with the sale while creating a new $750,000 wealth management relationship for Grimes & Company.

grimesco.com

“You could argue that business valuation is much more important and leads you into much different planning engagements than anything else.”

Todd A. Herman, CFP®, AIF®

Financial Advisor/Financial Planning Specialist

About Grimes & Company

Grimes & Company is an independent wealth management firm providing comprehensive financial planning and investment management to individuals, families, and business owners. Todd Herman, CFP®, AIF®, helps lead the firm’s financial planning efforts, with an emphasis on bringing specialized planning capabilities into the broader client relationship.

The Challenge

The Solution

Todd used RISR to establish a data-backed valuation and bring greater clarity to the owner’s exit decision. The analysis confirmed that the client’s expectations around the value of the business were reasonable, giving the owner greater confidence to move forward.

Rather than treating the valuation as a standalone exercise, Todd incorporated it into the broader financial planning relationship, connecting the value of the business to the client’s transition and the assets that would ultimately need to support life after the sale.

The engagement also reinforced how business valuation can serve as an entry point into more comprehensive planning conversations with business-owner clients.

The Results

The client moved forward with the exit, and the resulting liquidity created a new wealth management opportunity for Grimes & Company. For Todd, the engagement demonstrated how providing clarity around business value can help owners make consequential decisions while naturally expanding the advisor’s role in the planning process.

Across this engagement, Grimes & Company:

Gave the owner confidence to move forward with the business sale

Established a new wealth management relationship representing approximately $750,000 in assets