When should you speak to a financial adviser before selling a business?
The sale date is not always the best time to start planning. Some personal decisions are easier to think through before the transaction completes.
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Why speak before the sale?
A business sale can change liquidity, income, investment risk, retirement plans and family decisions at once. Starting earlier gives the adviser time to understand what the sale is supposed to achieve rather than only deciding where to invest the proceeds afterwards.
Questions to work through
Choose someone who regularly works with exits
Ask for the adviser's typical client and whether they have repeated experience with founders approaching liquidity events. A general high-net-worth label does not automatically mean business-exit experience.
Do not feel forced to invest immediately after completion
A plan can deliberately include a period of cash and decision-making. The amount of money creates urgency emotionally, but good planning should not manufacture artificial urgency.
Work out what the sale needs to achieve personally
Before focusing on investment products, describe life after the sale: continuing work, retirement, a new venture, family support or another goal. Estimate spending and identify existing resources outside the business. This helps distinguish a desirable sale price from the amount needed for the intended plan.
Use scenarios rather than one assumed net receipt. Headline value, debt, ownership share, transaction costs, tax and deferred payments can produce different personal outcomes. Ask the accountant and solicitor to confirm the assumptions within their responsibility.
Keep the financial adviser informed while options remain open, but do not assume they replace transaction or legal advisers. Their role may be to connect possible outcomes with your personal finances.
Recognise which money remains uncertain
An offer may include earn-outs, retained shares, escrow or payments subject to conditions. Record when each amount could arrive and what could reduce it. A plan funded only by the full headline offer may be fragile if part of the price is contingent.
In an illustrative sale, £2m of consideration might consist of £1.2m at completion and £800,000 dependent on later performance. Before tax and other adjustments, those are already different planning resources. Treating both as available cash on completion would overstate immediate flexibility.
Ask how the plan would work if completion were delayed or the contingent amount never arrived. This is a planning exercise, not a prediction about the deal.
| Component | Amount | Planning treatment |
|---|---|---|
| At completion | £1.2m | Confirm actual net receipt and liabilities |
| Conditional later payment | £800,000 | Record conditions and timing; do not treat as cash already received |
| Headline total | £2m | Not the same as immediately available personal money |
Agree what must happen before and after completion
Identify professional decisions that need attention before documents become binding and practical tasks that can wait. Avoid implementing a tax or ownership change solely from a general article; the transaction facts and current rules need specialist assessment.
Prepare the receiving-account and verification process in advance, using independently confirmed instructions. Then plan to reconcile actual net proceeds and liabilities before long-term investment decisions.
Ask the adviser for a clearly priced pre-sale engagement and explain whether later investment management is optional. Early planning should not depend on an unspoken commitment to place all sale proceeds with one firm.
Sources and further reading
MoneyHelper - Choosing a financial adviser ↗
