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Exit Planning Workshop for Advisors

As an advisor, your clients look to you for guidance and to help them achieve their future goals. A natural opportunity for you to increase your business lies within your existing client base - business owners. All business owners, regardless of the stage of their life, can benefit from planning for the eventual exit from that business. Our 2-day seminar will show you everything you need to know in order to incorporate exit strategy planning into the services you provide - today.

The Need for Exit Strategy Planning

Did you know that there are an estimated 22 million businesses in the United States? With the largest generation in our country's history entering retirement age, and many of the nation's private businesses are owned and run by these Baby Boomers, the need for these business owners to prepare for their exit is more important now than ever before.

Within the next 35 years, experts estimate that $10.4 TRILLION of net worth from private businesses will be transferred. There is urgency to this emerging marketing with very few advisors or consultants currently trained and prepared to advise clients on how to successfully exit their business. In addition, most business owners equate exiting their business with selling their business. Unfortunately, less than 20% of companies successfully sell to an outside buyer. The not so obvious, but much more frequent, exit strategies include transfers to family member, to management teams, to private equity groups, or to employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) as well as gifting programs.

Become a Quarterback

You do not need to become a financial advisor/investment banker/business valuation analyst/tax advisor all rolled into one. Your goal will be to simply understand the needs of your business owner client, compare the exit strategy options available to them, and then to add value by coordinating the exit strategy process. Our two-day seminar will show you everything you need to know, how to incorporate it into your business today, and how to start selling your services.

Your Host: John Leonetti

John is a recognized as a leader in the exit strategy planning field and for fifteen years has served the various roles of manager, transactional advisor, legal advisor and financial advisor to privately held businesses. He is also an exiting business owner in his own right, successfully selling his wealth management business in early 2008.

John M. Leonetti is the founder and managing director of Pinnacle Equity Solutions, an exit strategy planning firm which offers planning services to business owners as well as education and training programs for professional advisors. He is the author of the newly released book Exiting Your Business, Protecting Your Wealth: A Strategic Guide for Owners and Their Advisors [John Wiley & Sons, 2008].



Watch a short video clip of John's appearances on ABC News Now and NECN as well as one of John's seminars:



Exit Planning Certification

After investing years in building our industry leading process and curriculum within our training program, Pinnacle will launch its certification course. This exit planning certification will be a combination of online and live training. This 2-day Workshop is designed to include Pinnacle's 'core' training materials that will be applied towards your future certification.

Pinnacle anticipates the full certification materials and training modules to be completed by the 1st Quarter of 2010.

Continuing Education Credits

BONUS: This workshop has been approved for the following credits:

  • Approved for 16 hours of CPE credit
  • Approved for 10 hours of CFP credit
  • Approved for 12 hours of MA insurance credit

Pinnacle Equity Solutions is registered with the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) as a sponsor of continuing professional education on the National Registry of CPE Sponsors. State boards of accountancy have final authority on the acceptance of individual courses for CPE credit. Complaints regarding registered sponsors may be addressed to the National Registry of CPE Sponsors, 150 Fourth Avenue North, Suite 700, Nashville, TN, 37219-2417. Web site: www.nasba.org.

This program has been accepted for CFP® Credit by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Inc. owns the certification marks CFP® CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER- and in the U.S., which it awards to individuals who successfully complete CFP Board's initial and ongoing certification requirements.

Workshop Outline

Our 2-day workshop will give you all the tools you'll need to incorporate exit strategy planning into the services you provide. During the workshop, you'll learn the benefits of being the quarterback of an Exit Strategy Transaction, including:

We'll cover a simple six-step process to complete a successful exit plan:


DAY ONE: SETTING UP THE PLAN

  • The Marketplace for Exiting Owners - The marketplace that is looking for this service is currently in the millions. We'll look at the advisors who are currently serving these business owners.
  • Initial Meetings/Questions for Owners - What business owners are most concerned about and the questions that advisors are not asking their business owner clients.
  • Exit Goals of the Business Owner - Ask the right questions to find out "What they want".
  • Mental and Financial Readiness for an Exit - Can the owner afford to exit? What is the emotional meaning of the business to the owner?
  • The Four Types of Exiting Owners - Simple charts to determine the type of business owner you are dealing with and what their optimal exit option is.
  • The Five Major Transaction Options - We will cover the 5 major exit transaction options which include a Sale, ESOP, Management Buyout, Private Equity Group Recap, and Gifting Strategies.
  • Valuations for each Exit Option & Why They Vary - There is a range of values for each business exit option. Learn to match the range of values to the owner's goals to achieve a successful strategy.

Case Study: Advisor Bill Meets Business Owner Joe - Interactive Group Case Study to apply what you've learned during Day 1 of the workshop.


DAY TWO: EXECUTION OF THE PLAN

  • Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs) - Why they are a powerful and flexible tool for conversations and planning.
  • Risk Management & Insurance Planning - Protecting business owner personal wealth through the use of insurance.
  • Deal Structuring & Taxes - It's often said "It's not what you get, but what you keep that matters." We'll see the tax implications of different exit options and how they can "kill a deal" if not addressed properly.
  • Selling a Business: The M&A Process - Understanding the M&A Process for the sale of the business and how an 'external' deal is structured.
  • Legal Agreements - Types of legal agreements that an exiting owner will likely sign.
  • Service Providers & The Advisory Team - None of us is as smart as all of us - Learn to work with your client's existing advisors to execute a successful exit strategy.

Case Study: Pulling it All Together - Learn how to put all of the information you've learned over the 2 days into an Exit Strategies Report for your client.




In addition, the seminar will include presentations from top advisors in
their area of expertise from around the country. Including...

Chris M. Mellen, ASA, MCBA, CM&AA, MBA
President - Delphi Valuation Advisors, Inc.

Chris Mellen is the president and founder of Delphi Valuation Advisors, Inc. and a principal in American Business Appraisers®, specializing in the valuation of closely held businesses, professional practices and intangible assets. His experience includes completion of over 1,500 valuations of such entities and assets. Chris holds the Accredited Senior Appraiser (ASA), Master Certified Business Appraiser (MCBA), and Certified Merger and Acquisition Advisor (CM&AA) designations. He has performed business valuations over the past 18 years in a wide range of industries for such purposes as tax planning and compliance, strategic planning, financing, mergers and acquisitions, post-acquisition purchase price allocation (SFAS No. 141), goodwill impairment (SFAS No. 142), 409A/123(R) compliance, estate planning, buy-sell agreements, marital dissolution, shareholder disputes, and appraisal review.





"...One of the best decisions that I have made in my 14 year career in the financial planning business. Thanks to Pinnacle, I now consider myself and our firm to be clearly more distinguished than most other practitioners in terms of the expertise and value we can provide to our clients. I also see the opportunity to dramatically increase our revenues and client base because of your support to help make it happen."

Warland Griffith, President and CEO
Wealth Management Advisors, Inc.
Miami, FL

"John is an excellent teacher who has taken a complex process and broken it into an orderly manner by organizing its components into a logical scope and sequential process. He further uses understandable charts that we can use to translate this to our customers. His system is exactly what I needed to start and accelerate my exit planning business."

Kevin J. Kennedy
Beacon Exit Planning
Elmira, NY

"My Membership with Pinnacle Equity Solutions has breathed a fresh breath of life into my wealth management practice. The exit strategies concept is unique and a great value-add for my business owner clients. Within a month of attending the 2-Day Exit Strategies Training Workshop, I was incorporating exit strategy planning into my practice and impressing clients with my holistic advice on their illiquid wealth.

"I am now excited about prospecting with this idea as no other advisors are using these tools to grow their practices. Pinnacle's approach has allowed me to engage this valuable marketplace of business owners like never before, providing more opportunity for my practice than I could have even imagined."

R. Bennett Firestone
Legacy Wealth Management
Mt. Pleasant, NC

"In assisting my M&A clients, I recognized a great need for exit planning. I had been actively searching for an organization to give me the needed knowledge, tools and information to integrate this service into my existing M&A practice. John Leonetti has addressed this grossly under-served market segment and is providing financial professionals the necessary tools and support to capture this growing market. I am so thankful to have found Pinnacle Equity Solutions. Now I will be able to successfully incorporate exit planning into my present business. I highly recommend it!"

Kathleen Richardson-Mauro, CFP, CBI, CM&AA, Broker
Florida's Business Connection Inc
Spring Hill, FL



Workshop cost is $497

Click Below To Enroll Online Now!






If you have questions about registering for this event or require additional information about our services, you can call our Pinnacle Equity Solutions office at 781-821-2608.