Wealth Management for Business Owners & Founders
Wealth Management Services for Business Owners and Entrepreneurs
Darrow Wealth Management offers financial planning and investment management services to entrepreneurs, tech founders, and business owners preparing for a business sale or startup exit. As sudden wealth management advisors, we know how to help entrepreneurs navigate the transition after a liquidity event. Through our ongoing partnership, we’ll help manage your new wealth strategically and tax-efficiently.
Liquidity Planning: Selling Your Business
We specialize in helping founders and business owners plan for liquidity events and sudden wealth transitions. After selling a business, entrepreneurs need a long-term financial advisory partner to manage cash flows, develop a strategy for new liquidity and taxes, and map the overall post-exit wealth plan.
Selling a business can feel like having another full-time job. Having the right team of business and personal advisors is essential to a successful exit. We’ll work alongside your deal team to help ensure alignment and communication. There are components of the sale process that will directly intersect with your personal financial and tax situation.
After the sale, it’s time for strategic wealth planning. We’ll talk about your goals and develop a long-term investment strategy and financial plan for the proceeds.
Supporting Business Owners Through Sales and Transitions
Whether navigating a full business sale, acquisition, internal succession, or IPO, entrepreneurs need a wealth advisor who understands the financial and emotional complexities of business transitions. As a business owner herself, Darrow Wealth advisor and President Kristin McKenna brings a rare combination of professional experience and firsthand knowledge to support business owners during their transition.
Having successfully navigated a company transition with her own father, Kristin understands the complex family and business dynamics, emotional challenges, and financial and tax implications that come with selling and transitioning a business.
Managing Proceeds After Selling a Business
Financial decisions made in the months before and immediately after the sale of a business are crucial. Because the sale is such a major life event, a big part of managing the sale proceeds initially is slowing things down. We typically recommend entrepreneurs delay large purchases and hold off on making big gifts or sweeping changes to an estate plan until the tax impact is clear and financial possibilities are explored.
Post-exit wealth management describes the financial planning and investment strategy that comes after a founder liquidity event — from allocating the cash proceeds, to building a tax-efficient portfolio and income stream, to weighing the trade-offs involved in reaching your long-term goals. As a fee-only fiduciary, we help entrepreneurs manage the proceeds as one coordinated plan, working alongside your CPA and estate attorney.
For more on the post-sale planning process, see What To Do With The Money From The Sale Of Your Business.
Financial Planning and Investing After a Business Sale
What’s your plan for the proceeds? In this video, Kristin McKenna, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® professional, walks through post-sale investment strategy, major purchases, and liquidity planning for business owners and entrepreneurs.
Speaking Engagements
Kristin McKenna is actively shaping the conversation around business exits and succession planning. Her expertise includes exit planning for closely held businesses, founder liquidity events, and succession planning strategies. Kristin has shared her insights as a speaker, panelist, and moderator at leading industry events in Greater Boston, including:
- Speaker: Exit Planning for Business Owners: Navigating the Sale of a Business at the 2025 Annual Meeting of the Massachusetts Forum of Estate Planning Attorneys
- Panelist: Keeping Clients Happy While You Transition Your Practice at the 2024 Exit Planning Exchange Boston Annual Summit
- Panelist: Proactive Planning: How to Transition Your Business Within the Next 5 Years at a virtual event hosted by Long Hagan Huff-Harris
- Moderator: How Advisors Can Work Together for Better Outcomes at the 2025 Exit Planning Exchange Boston Annual Summit
Beyond speaking engagements, Kristin serves as a Board Member for the Exit Planning Exchange (XPX) of Greater Boston, where she helps advance best practices for founders and entrepreneurs in exit planning and business transitions.
Whether you’re just beginning to think about founder liquidity or are in the late stages of the exit process, we’re here to help.
Financial Advisor for Business Owners and Founders
While every founder’s journey is unique, we frequently work with high-income business owners and entrepreneurs preparing for exit events or scaling toward liquidity.
- Exit planning and liquidity strategy for founders
- Coordination with CPAs, business sale attorneys, and M&A teams
- Liquidity event planning and post-exit financial and tax planning
- Early retirement and multi-year cash flow planning/projections
- Diversification of concentrated equity positions
- Estate planning, gifting, and charitable giving considerations post-liquidity
Fee-Only Wealth Management
As a fee-only financial advisor, we do not sell securities, investment products, or receive commissions or compensation from third parties. We are only paid by our clients as a percentage of assets under management (AUM).
Registered Investment Advisor and Fiduciary
As a full-time fiduciary and registered investment advisor, we are legally bound to act at all times for the sole benefit and interest of our clients. This is the highest act of loyalty, trust and care under the law.
About Darrow Wealth Management
Darrow Wealth Management is a registered investment advisor with offices in Boston, MA and Needham, MA. As a SEC-registered investment advisor, we partner with executives and professionals across the United States. Established in 1987, we are proud to be a second generation family business.
Our team of advisors includes CFP® professionals, CPA, CFA®, Accredited Estate Planner (AEP®), and a Licensed Attorney with an LLM in Taxation.
Frequently Asked Questions: Managing Sudden Wealth From a Business Sale
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What should I look for in a financial advisor after a business sale?
There isn't one best financial advisor after selling a business. Factors like the size of the sale and personality fit are personal and important. But for specialized advice and long-term guidance, consider firms like Darrow Wealth Management who:
- Specialize in exit planning and the entire sudden wealth lifecycle
- Drive a comprehensive wealth strategy post-sale (cash flow, tax planning, estate coordination, tax-efficient portfolio management, long-term wealth preservation)
- Understand the specific complexities of selling a $10M+ business, such as qualified small business stock (QSBS), rollover equity, and earnouts
- Are independent and fee-only (not incentivized by product sales and proprietary investments)
- Registered investment advisors (RIAs) with a fiduciary duty
- Emphasize the team approach and will coordinate with tax and legal advisors
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What size of liquidity event do you typically work with?
Our clients typically come to us before or after a business sale, acquisition, or equity exit in the $10 million to $50 million range. Founders who are a strong fit are looking for ongoing post-exit wealth management on an AUM basis. As a boutique registered investment advisor, we are selective about who we work with, and only partner with entrepreneurs seeking a dedicated advisory team for the entire post-exit arc, not a single-stage engagement.
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Do you support entrepreneurs throughout their long-term post-exit wealth strategy?
We support founders and entrepreneurs across the entire liquidity event lifecycle: from pre-to-post-exit planning to long-term multi-generational wealth strategy. Continuity is key, so it's important to look for a financial advisory team that can support you through all stages of the sale, as well as the complexities that come with larger deal sizes.
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What type of professional can manage my investments after selling a business?
Although many types of professionals manage money, many founders and entrepreneurs prefer to partner with an independent registered investment advisor for long-term financial planning and investing the proceeds after the exit. Fee-only wealth managers don't sell financial products and a fiduciary must always work in the client's best interest. Darrow Wealth Management is an independent, fee-only registered investment advisor and full-time fiduciary.
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When should I talk to a financial advisor after selling my business?
Wealth management for business owners should start before the sale closes, not after. Some of the most valuable planning (structure of the deal, balancing tax savings with real financial risk, building capital losses, etc.) happens while the deal is active. Engaging a financial advisor early allows them to coordinate with the deal team and your business and personal tax advisors on decisions that are impossible to reverse afterwards.
Insights for Business Owners, Founders & Entrepreneurs
SEP IRA for the Self-Employed: Retirement Planning for Business Owners
Key Details on SEP IRAs The SEP IRA is a type of retirement plan for self-employed business owners (sole proprietors, partnerships, C and S corporations). Unlike most types of retirement plans, the SEP IRA is only funded by the employer. SEP IRAs are straightforward, inexpensive to set up and administer,
Solo 401(k): Self-Employed Retirement Plan
The Individual (or Solo) 401(k) plan is similar to a traditional 401(k) plan, but it’s specifically for business owners without employees. Compared to the other types of retirement plans typically used by self-employed individuals, the Solo 401(k) offers a higher contribution limit, tax-deferred growth, a wide array of investment options,
Can You Contribute to Multiple 401(k)s at Once?
Can I contribute to more than one retirement plan? This is a common question for individuals that have more than one job or run their own business part-time. Many workers in this situation wonder if they can contribute to two 401(k)s at once. In summary: yes, you can have multiple
Qualified Small Business Stock: QSBS Tax Exemption for Startup Shares
Key takeaway: If you have qualified small business stock you can exclude up to 100% of the capital gain from federal taxes. In most cases, QSBS eligibility depends on owning shares of a C corporation for five years, beginning before the company’s value exceeded $50M. There are other requirements and