Small Business Owners Need an Integrated Approach to Post-Pandemic Financial Planning

Business owners must contend with many facets of financial management – business accounting, cash-flow management, and capital acquisition. Personal financial planning is the one area of financial management that often goes unheeded or is placed on the back burner. Yet, it is the one aspect of a business owner’s financial picture that, if not soundly in place, could have the most serious unintended consequences for the business.

Unquestionably, business owners enjoy a greater opportunity to build wealth. Still, this comes at the cost of being able to navigate the complexities of managing a comprehensive financial plan that integrates tax strategies, risk management, investment management, retirement planning, business planning, family considerations, and estate preservation.

And for those who succeed, the paradox of wealth accumulation is that the better they do, the more complicated their needs become. Business owners, targeted by a completely different part of the tax code, are weighed down by an additional layer of complexity that must be deciphered.

Business Owners Need an Integrated Financial Strategy

Business owners need an integrated approach to their financial planning. However, many don’t know how to achieve it on their own. It requires a collaborative process that incorporates the planning efforts of multiple disciplines into a coordinated plan. Put another way, it requires a team approach championed by a professional advisor adept at forging effective working relationships with advisors in other disciplines.

Without coordination or collaboration between the various disciplines, you could be left with different pieces of the puzzle without a clear picture of how they fit together. We all know what it’s like to try to piece together a puzzle without being able to see the box top. And because each of the pieces is formed in separate silos, the likelihood is they won’t fit cleanly together, if at all, leaving you with a discombobulated plan.

In many cases, a qualified financial advisor is best positioned to function as the team quarterback to facilitate the collaboration of all key players. Whoever is selected as the team leader assumes the responsibility for ensuring that all the elements of your financial plan are developed as prescribed by your plan and then fully implemented on an established timeline.

The body of knowledge and competencies required to develop and implement a comprehensive financial plan integrating multiple disciplines that address both personal and business needs, is as extensive as any business owner must be able to acquire in their own field to practice their trade.

In fact, it is far beyond the capacity of any one professional advisor, which is why the most qualified and client-centric advisors insist on a “team approach” to developing and implementing a comprehensive financial plan for incorporated professionals. Nothing short of a well-coordinated, collaborative effort by a team of professionals from the legal, insurance, investment, estate, business, and tax will provide the scale of planning and advice successful business owners need.

 

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