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Business Advisory

Exit Planning for Business Owners

You built the business. Now you are weighing what comes next: a sale, a recapitalization, a transition to family or management, or an offer you did not go looking for. Pitcairn helps owners prepare for the transaction, protect its value, and build a plan for the wealth and the life that follow.

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The Decisions Ahead Are Bigger Than the Deal

For most owners, a business sale is a once-in-a-lifetime event. The transaction itself gets plenty of attention from bankers, lawyers, and accountants. What often goes unplanned is everything around it: the tax strategy that must be in place before a letter of intent is signed, the family conversations the sale will trigger, the investment plan for the proceeds, and the question of what your days look like when the business no longer fills them.

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Professionals working together, discussing ideas and planning strategy in a modern office environment. Emphasizing teamwork and communication

How We Help, at Every Stage of Your Exit

The most valuable planning happens before the deal, sometimes years before. We help you:

Before the Sale
Pre-Transaction Planning
during the sale
Coordination and Clarity
after the sale
Your Next Chapter

CEPA®-Led Expertise

The Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA®) credential reflects advanced training in owner readiness, value acceleration, and transition planning across strategic, financial, and personal dimensions.
Justin Bakewell's headshot
Justin Bakewell

Managing Director, Head of Client Strategy

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Jay Goetschius

Managing Director, Head of Florida

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Jocelyn Schwartz

Managing Director, Relationship Manager

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Our Engagement Model

Our engagement model is relationship-based and ongoing, built to evolve with you before, during, and long after the transaction.

Discovery & Diagnostic
We assess where you are in the exit timeline, your ownership and entity structures, your family's goals, and the planning already in place.
Planning & Alignment
Together we design a pre-sale, transaction, and post-sale roadmap that reflects your priorities, coordinated with your tax and legal advisors.
Implementation Support
We facilitate the critical conversations and coordinate with your bankers, attorneys, and accountants to keep execution on track.
Ongoing Review
We revisit the plan as the deal evolves, and we remain your family's advisor long after closing, as your wealth and goals change.

How Pitcairn Supports Ultra-High-Net-Worth Families Selling their Businesses

We have lived the transition ourselves.
Pitcairn was founded in 1923 by a family that built and ultimately transitioned an industrial enterprise (PPG Industries).
Advice that spans the deal and the decades after.
Investment bankers close the transaction. We help you prepare for it, navigate it, and manage what it creates, with planning, investments, tax coordination, trust services, and family education under one roof.
A fiduciary, independent perspective
Pitcairn is privately held. We sell no products and answer to no outside owners. Our only interest in your transaction is your family's outcome.

Common Questions From Owners Planning Their Exit Strategy

How far in advance of a sale should I start planning?

Ideally two to five years before a transaction. The most powerful tax and estate planning strategies, including certain gifting and trust structures, generally must be in place before a letter of intent is signed, and some benefit from being established years earlier. That said, meaningful planning is possible at any stage, including after an unsolicited offer arrives.

How can I reduce taxes when I sell my business?

The appropriate strategies depend on your entity type, state of residence, family goals, and timeline. Common areas we evaluate with your tax advisors include qualified small business stock (QSBS) treatment, pre-sale gifts to family members or trusts, charitable strategies such as donor-advised funds or charitable trusts, and the structure and timing of the transaction itself. No single strategy fits every owner, and early planning preserves the most options.

What should I do with the proceeds after selling my business?

Resist the pressure to decide quickly. A disciplined approach typically starts with securing near-term cash needs, then deploying the remainder over time according to a plan matched to your goals, risk tolerance, tax profile, and liquidity needs. Many owners also use this moment to establish the estate, philanthropic, and family governance structures their new wealth requires.

I already have an investment banker and a lawyer. Where does Pitcairn fit?

Your deal team's job is to close the best possible transaction. Our job is everything the transaction touches: the personal and family planning before the sale, the wealth strategy for the proceeds, and the ongoing management of your family's financial life afterward. We coordinate closely with your bankers, attorneys, and accountants so nothing falls between roles.

What is a CEPA®, and why does it matter?

The Certified Exit Planning Advisor designation is awarded by the Exit Planning Institute to advisors who complete advanced training in exit readiness, business value acceleration, and the financial and personal dimensions of an owner's transition. Working with a CEPA®-credentialed advisor means your exit is guided by someone trained in the full arc of a transition, not just the investment of the proceeds.

Featured Resources for Business Owners

All Insights & News
Business Advisory
Selling Your Business? Here's How to Balance Emotion and Logic
Selling a business is as much an emotional reckoning as a financial one—and having lived its own enterprise transition, Pitcairn helps owners balance feeling and logic.
Business Advisory
From Chaos to Clarity: What a Family CFO Can Do for You
When a family's wealth outgrows the spreadsheet, complexity—not intelligence—is the problem, and having run its own family enterprise, Pitcairn brings the Family CFO who restores clarity.
Business Advisory
Pitcairn Named to Inaugural CNBC Elite Advisors List
Recognition means most when it reflects how you serve, and having grown from its own single-family office into a home for 140+ families, Pitcairn earns CNBC's Elite Advisors honor.

Start the conversation early, and in confidence.

Talk with an Exit Planning Advisor

Whether your sale is a possibility, a plan, or already in motion, the right time to talk is now. Conversations with Pitcairn are confidential and carry no obligation.

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