Personal cash flow vs. business cash flow
Most owners run both books. We separate the two cleanly. Owner compensation strategy, distributions, retained earnings, and the personal household income.
Financial planning for business owners from founding through eventual transition or sale. Owner compensation, retirement plan design, succession or exit work, plus the personal side of running a company.
Most owners run both books. We separate the two cleanly. Owner compensation strategy, distributions, retained earnings, and the personal household income.
SEP IRA, Solo 401(k), Cash Balance plan. The right vehicle depends on profitability, employee count, and how much you want to shelter. Often the biggest tax-advantaged savings opportunity an owner has.
The eventual transition is most owners' largest financial event. We start the conversation years before it happens.
We work with your business attorney, your CPA, and where applicable, your investment banker. We don't duplicate their work. We coordinate it.
We meet on a real cadence, usually quarterly. The plan flexes as your life and the tax code change. Most relationships span decades.
Offices in Boca Raton and Plantation, plus licensed in all 50 states. Existing clients keep us when they move.
Composite scenarios drawn from real client work, anonymized.
Cash flow stabilized, beneficiaries audited, a draft plan in hand. Most clients feel oriented by month three.
Tax positioning implemented, investment policy in place, the first quarterly reviews done. Decisions start compounding.
The plan has flexed to handle real-life shifts (a new job, a sale, a loss). The pattern is steady decisions, not reactive ones.
Most business owner planning relationships move through phases. Early phase: getting the personal financial life organized while the business is the focus. Mid phase: retirement plan optimization, real estate decisions, kids' education, broader wealth building. Late phase: succession or exit planning. We're useful at each stage, but the work looks different.
For owners thinking about an eventual sale, see Business Succession Planning (for family or internal transitions) and Business Exit Planning (for third-party sales). The earlier we start, the more the planning matters.
Common entry points and adjacencies:
For family, internal, or ESOP transitions. The personal financial plan that lives on the other side.
See business succession planning →For third-party sales. Pre-sale tax positioning and post-sale wealth strategy.
See business exit planning →SEP, Solo 401(k), Cash Balance plans. Often the most tax-efficient savings vehicle for an owner.
See retirement planning →Many business owners also fit one of these:
"Beth set up a Cash Balance plan for me that lets me shelter substantially more than the regular 401(k) limit. The tax savings alone covered the planning fee for years."
"I have a CPA. I have a business attorney. What I didn't have was the personal financial plan that connected what they were doing. That's what Beth does."
"We started planning my exit five years before it happened. The pre-sale tax positioning and the post-sale plan made a real difference. I am glad I started early."
Posts our wealth advisors have put together on this topic.
Depends on the business. Solo entrepreneur with no employees: Solo 401(k) is usually the answer. Small employee base with high profitability: SEP IRA or full 401(k) with profit-sharing. Very high income with small employee base where you want to shelter substantially more: Cash Balance plan combined with a 401(k). We model the options based on your specific situation.
Depends on the entity structure (S-corp, C-corp, LLC), the IRS reasonable compensation standard, the employee benefits picture, and the cash flow rhythm of the business. Most owners we work with under-pay themselves on salary and over-distribute, which can create reasonable-comp exposure with the IRS. We work with your CPA on the right balance.
Ideally 3 to 5 years before the actual transition. The pre-transition tax positioning, the entity-level decisions, the charitable structures, and the family governance work all benefit from runway. Many owners come to us 12 to 18 months out, which is still workable but tighter.
A Cash Balance plan is a defined benefit retirement plan that can dramatically increase the tax-advantaged savings room for high-income business owners with small employee bases. Annual contributions can be hundreds of thousands of dollars depending on age and income. Setup requires an actuary; we coordinate.
Depends on the entity structure, the personal cash flow needs, and the planned exit timing. For S-corps, retained earnings still get taxed at the personal level. For C-corps, retained earnings sit at the corporate rate. We work through the math with your CPA.
The first meeting is a conversation, not a sales pitch. We'll talk about where you are, what you're working through, and whether Intercoastal is the right fit. In person in Boca Raton or Plantation, or by video from anywhere.