Beyond the Exit Plan

Calling all current and future exit planners . . .

If you are a professional advisor who is working in the exit planning marketplace, you are likely enjoying being a part of this emerging, exciting industry.

The comprehensive and collaborative nature of exit planning requires a commitment to continuing education. It's important to learn about the different products, services and solutions that your exiting owners will need to successfully execute on their business and personal plans for their exit. The challenge is that the broad topic of exit planning requires product knowledge in many areas where you likely did not receive formal training.

Therefore, Pinnacle Equity Solutions is proud to be hosting a first-of-its-kind live practice management session where we will teach products and services related to exit plans to advisors who need to learn about these different areas. The majority of this 2 /12 day event will be focused on 'the big 3' products and services in any exit plan, namely:

Mergers and Acquisitions (process and fees)
Investment Planning and Wealth Management (service, products and fees)
Insurance (products and fees).

These 'big 3' products and services will be a part of any exit plan that you are working on with clients. Moreover, the fees that are generated by any one of these products and services are likely a high multiple of the exit planning fees that you are charging. Finally, it is for the benefit of your exiting owner, that you will want to learn about these different products and services so that you can more effectively network with the right professionals to bring to your owners as well as potentially share in the fees that are generated.

Fee sharing can be a difficult topic for some advisors to discuss. Many believe that sharing in fees will compromise their objectivity. However, there is a counter-point by which this program is being designed - that every exit planner owes it to their clients to learn about these products and services and then, on a case-by-case basis, determine whether any sharing of fees will occur. This event will discuss all of the licenses and details that surround the sharing of fees. We will also introduce best practices around the sharing of fees, starting with the basics of (i) full disclosure to the owner, and (ii) that the owner gets improved and coordinated services at the same price they would otherwise be paying. By positioning fee-sharing in this context, we see that we continue to add value to our owner engagements. By making the fee-sharing optional and on a case-by-case basis, we leave the decision in the owner's hands while continuing to maintain our objectivity while increasing our service and profitability.

Pinnacle Equity Solutions is a national leader in providing education, training, support and certification to the emerging exit planning industry. We offer this 2 1/2 day educational program in an effort to educate and improve the emerging exit planning business, helping to better serve the vast number of owners who will exit their businesses in the next ten (10) to twenty (20) years.

Agenda

Wednesday, January 18th

6:00 pm - Welcome Reception
We will host a welcome reception for all of our attendees on Wednesday, Jan. 18th at 6:00 p.m. This will allow us all to meet, network, and get prepared for our 2 1/2 days of work together.

Day 1
Thursday, January 19th – Full Day Session

8:00 am - 12:00 pm - Introductions and Mergers and Acquisitions Training & Exit Plan Integration
After opening remarks and introductions (a Pinnacle tradition), we will kick-off the event on Thursday with our Mergers and Acquisitions advisors discussing M&A and where is fits in the exit planning engagement when an owner decides on an external transfer. This will comprise topics such as:
- 'how a typical auction process is run'
- 'what a double-lehman fee schedule means'
- 'how to introduce an M&A service provider to the owner'
- ‘the Series 79 license and an update on how exit planners can get the license to share in the fees’
- Case study integration
NOTE that we will recommend compliance with the licensure requirement, recognizing that most service providers continue to not hold licenses and the laws may change to support this in the near future.

The M&A speakers and discussion will go from 8:00 until 12:00 when we will break for lunch.
12:00 pm - 1:30 pm - Lunch (attendees are on their own for lunch)
1:30 pm - 5:00 pm - Wealth Management Training and Integration into the Exit Plan
The afternoon session on Thursday will be a discussion on wealth management opportunities in the exit planning engagement. This session will cover topics including:
- How to measure and address an owner’s Financial Readiness
- An overview of asset allocation, liquid investments, and income replacement
- An overview of financial planning versus investment planning
- An overview of savings and spending habits of owners, including qualified plan savings as well as pension accounts and other sources of income
- How the wealth management fees are generated
- How exit planners can share in the wealth management fees
- Case study integration
5:00 pm - Wrap Up Day 1, Cocktail Hour
We will wrap up the wealth management training at 5:00 and adjourn to our cocktail hour and reception to end the day. From 5:30 to 7:00 we will have a cocktail reception to unwind from our day of training. After cocktails, our Members are on their own for dinner (again, we chose the venue based upon multiple options for dining on the premises)

Day 2
Friday, January 20th – Full-day Session

We dedicate our 2nd day of learning to insurance and risk management products, services and training. Insurance opportunities seem to be pervasive inside of our exit planning engagements. This is to say that many owners will not sell and may or may not accumulate enough assets to need an investment advisor (or, more likely, they will try to do the investing themselves). However, every owner seems to have some portfolio of insurance, or alternatively, is without proper coverage.

Our full-day of insurance topics will include the following:

8:00 am - 10:00 am - Introduction to the Industry, Products, and Where They Fit in an Exit Plan
- Introduction to insurance products – term versus whole life versus universal life
- A brief history of the insurance industry, including tax benefits, reasons for insurance and how the products have changed dramatically over the years
- What is a policy audit and how can exit planners recommend this to owners
- Where insurance opportunities commonly appear in an exit planning engagement
- Case study integration of basic concepts
10:00 am - 12:00 pm - Special Strategies Tied to Exit Planning, Part I
This session will introduce some of the insurance opportunities that commonly arise in the context of an exit planning engagement. These include:
- Estate Tax Exposure (and use of ILITs)
- Insurance as a Savings Vehicle (to increase an owner’s financial readiness)
  - The concept of Infinite Banking
- The buy-sell agreement amongst co-owners and how to fund it
12:00 pm - 1:30 pm - Lunch (attendees are on their own for lunch)
1:30 pm - 3:00 pm - Special Strategies Tied to Exit Planning, Part II
- The use of deferred compensation with internal transfers
  - What is a COLI product?
- The use of captive insurance strategies in an exit planning engagement
3:15 pm - 5:00 pm - Making Insurance Work in the Exit Plan
The final session on insurance will include a practice management conversation relating to the process of introducing and selling the various forms of insurance. It will also introduce our Members to the insurance licensing requirement and the various ways that exit planners can participate in the fees that are generated in these cases. Finally, we will use our case study to integrate these concepts and to illustrate specific examples of how policies pay out their commissions and how typical split arrangements work. We will also introduce recommended approaches for addressing insurance issues with business owners and how our exit planners can partner with different risk management specialists to make this business work for their owners and their own practice.
5:30 pm - 7:00 pm - Cocktail Reception

Day 3
Saturday, Jan. 20th, Half-day session

9:00 am - 11:00 am - New curriculum - Growth Experts
On Saturday morning we will meet for a few hours to hear from two growth consultants that work specifically with our mid market companies and clients. These growth experts work to help fill an exiting owner's value gap by systematically growing the company.

We will break early on Saturday morning so that we can enjoy the warm (hopefully) weather of Florida as well as our luxury surrounding.

We believe that this is going to be a great learning event for all attendees. As our emerging exit planning industry continues to grow, Pinnacle expects to continue to provide leading edge education and solutions to continue to build this noble profession.

Event Host

John M. Leonetti, CFP, CM&AA, is the founder and managing director of Pinnacle Equity Solutions, an exit strategies firm specializing in exit strategy design and execution services to advisors and their privately held business owners. In addition, John is the author of the highly publicized book “Exiting Your Business, Protecting Your Wealth: A Strategic Guide for Owners and Their Advisors”. John is a nationally recognized leader in the Exit Planning field and has been interviewed on ABC News Now, NECN, and numerous national radio programs. In addition, John's book has been the hot topic for many national industry and business owner publications.