Small Business Owners
When you own a small business, everything is about the business. Day-to-day operations, growing the business, taking care of your employees, earning an income: you live it and you breathe it, 24/7.
But are you monetizing that business so that it effectively serves your family? Do you have a succession plan in place, should you choose to sell, or in the event of your death? Do you know how you’re going to extract value from the business upon your retirement?
At E. Demmler and Associates, we have more than questions. We have answers. There are many ways to balance growing a business with ensuring that business’s financial benefit to your family, including the ability to secure all the same benefits and options enjoyed by the executives of larger companies. We help our clients prioritize, organize and simplify their financial matters, take care of the people they love, and support the causes that are most important to them.
We’re here to help you set a course for your horizon. Because there’s so much more to your business than you can see when you’re battling each squall.
Business Structure / Income Distribution Analysis
Sole proprietor vs. C-Corp vs. S-Corp vs. LLC. Which to choose?
S-Corps can protect a portion of your income from FICA taxes, but, lower your W2 income too much and you could negatively impact your Social Security benefits. A C-Corp. allows for more robust savings and benefits, but it’s much more complicated.
We’ll do a projection of the implications of each of these scenarios to determine what ends up, net net, in your pocket.
Business Succession Planning
How much is your business worth? What would happen to your business if something happened to you? What if you want to leave your business? Is there a way to extract value from all the good will you’ve created, selling it for a profit or for the benefit of your heirs?
If you own a small business, you need to know what your business is worth and have a succession plan in place today to protect you and your family for whatever happens tomorrow. We’re here to help.
Retirement Plans for Closely Held Businesses
You’re probably familiar with the standard 401k and Pension plans blue-chip companies offer their employees. But for owners of small and closely held businesses, there are many more ways to extract value from your company upon your retirement. We will help you understand them all and select a plan that rewards you (and key employees) for your hard work on the most tax-preferred basis.
Employee Stock Ownership Plans
ESOPs are most commonly used to provide a market for the shares of departing owners of successful closely held companies, to motivate and reward employees, or to take advantage of incentives to borrow money for acquiring new assets in pretax dollars. They represent one way to transfer ownership of the company to employees while transferring wealth to you. We can help you decide whether that’s the right choice for you and your business and, if so, set up Employee Stock Ownership plans.
Estate Planning for Businesses with Illiquid Assets
If your estate, including your business worth more than $5.6 million, you may be over the estate tax threshold. If estate taxes come due, where will the money come from?
We will help you quantify your estate liability, understand the implications of your financial planning for your business and its effects on your heirs, and make plans to provide for liquidity to cover any estate taxes. after a lifetime of hard work in your business.
Family Meetings
When you want to pass on your business to your children, we will explain your plan to your children and help them understand the implications of their decisions, including who will work in the business, who will have controlling interest in the business and how to manage their new ownership shares, so that the business to which you’ve devoted your life will live to see another generation.
Family Limited Partnerships
Family Limited Partnerships are an estate-planning technique and a business valuation metric appropriate for some businesses. When you set up a family limited partnership, the IRS will allow you to significantly discount the value of each person’s share due to the illiquidity of the business and the inequality of the decision-making roles of the heirs.