At Daybreak Wealth, we believe in working together with our clients to create a holistic financial planning experience. When we met Joe and Louise, we knew that they had some big financial questions – and they weren’t certain their current advisor was addressing their needs proactively. They felt nervous about leaving money on the table, the impact of volatility on their financial plan, being unable to retire from their family-owned business, and being able to leave a legacy behind for their kids and grandkids. They needed someone to help them make a plan they felt confident and comfortable with.
Who was the client?
Joe and Louise are a married couple in their 50s. They own a closely held family business, and their three kids are all either in college or newly joining the workforce. Together with their investments and business assets, they had a net worth approximately $20 million.
What did they need?
Even with their successful business and strategic retirement savings, Joe and Louise felt uncertain about their financial future. They had a lot of financial complexity from their business, and their previous advisor was just going through a “checklist” and answering questions reactively instead of helping them think strategically about their future.
Retirement used to be something on the distant horizon, but with one of their children getting married soon and talking about starting a family of their own, they came to the realization that they wanted to be involved parents and grandparents. The breakneck pace of entrepreneurship wasn’t sustainable for 20+ more years.
They knew that at least one of their children wanted to take ownership of their business but weren’t sure how to start that process. They lacked clarity on how their investments needed to be organized heading into retirement to maintain their lifestyle, and ultimately leave a legacy for their children and grandchildren.
How we helped:
At Daybreak Wealth, we take a holistic approach to your finances – starting with understanding your biggest concerns and goals. Together with Joe and Louise, we modeled different scenarios to show how their investments and their business could work in tandem to support their desired lifestyle.
We also did a comprehensive audit of their financial life and found that they were dramatically underinsured. We optimized their coverage to help ensure we were protecting both their business and their nest egg as they neared retirement.
From there, we dug into their goal of selling their business to their kids. We partnered with a business valuation expert, and a new CPA, to prepare for the potential transfer of their family business, and to set up a game plan with their estate planning attorney to ensure their legacy extended beyond the business and was appropriately distributed to their kids (and future grandchildren!). They were running into hefty Illinois estate tax problems with their current plan, and their revised strategy empowered them to gift more of their wealth to the next generation – without losing a significant portion to taxes.
Where they are now:
Joe and Louise feel at peace with their finances today, and confident about their ability to achieve both their short- and long-term goals. More importantly, through continuing to partner with Daybreak Wealth, they feel comfortable reaching out with concerns, and know that we’re developing proactive strategies to address their needs – not just reacting to questions they bring up in review meetings.
