Leadership In Law Podcast

S02E58 Fiduciary-Driven Advice with Adam Koós

• Marilyn Jenkins • Season 2 • Episode 58

Share episode

What's the point of building wealth if you never have time to enjoy it? This question gets to the heart of why so many successful law firm owners find themselves trapped in practices that demand everything but deliver frustratingly little freedom.

Adam Koós, President of Libertas Wealth and Investopedia Top 100 Advisor, shares powerful insights on how attorneys can break the cycle by rethinking their practice approach. With experience guiding clients through four market crashes since 2001, he explains why law firm owners need a true fiduciary for unbiased financial advice.

Adam reveals that 80% of business owners’ net worth is tied to their companies, yet 80% never sell—they simply dissolve. This eye-opening stat underscores the need for attorneys to start exit planning early. With the right continuity plans, buy-sell agreements, and succession strategies, law firm owners can protect their biggest asset while boosting profitability and work-life balance.

For attorneys behind on retirement planning, Adam shares tax-saving strategies like cash balance plans allowing $150K+ in annual pre-tax savings. He also urges successful firms to replace SEP and SIMPLE IRAs with 401(k) plans and profit-sharing to cut taxes and build wealth faster.

The most surprising insight? Starting exit planning now—whether selling in three or thirteen years—brings immediate benefits: happier teams, smoother operations, higher profits, and the freedom to seize unexpected opportunities. As Adam says, "You do it now so you can be ready to sell anytime."

Reach Adam here: 

https://libertaswealth.com/ and https://elevateandexit.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamkoos/

https://www.facebook.com/LibertasWealth/

https://www.instagram.com/adamdkoos/

https://www.tiktok.com/@theretirementfidu


The Law Firm Growth Guild is designed to help you learn and use proven marketing strategies, grow your firm smarter, and scale your law firm predictably.

Visit https://checkout.lawmarketingzone.com to find out more and to join the private community.

My team and I are adding new content weekly so you can be intentional about your growth and development each week.

Join our private community, Law Firm Growth Guild, Your Shortcut to Marketing Mastery and More Clients at
https://checkout.lawmarketingzone.com

Ready to level up your law firm marketing? Book a FREE Discovery Call with Marilyn Here: https://lawmarketingzone.com/bookacall

Leadership In Law Podcast with host, Marilyn Jenkins
Powered by Law Marketing Zone®
https://lawmarketingzone.com
A full-service Digital Marketing Agency helping clients increase Leads, Cases, and Profit by getting their digital marketing right.

Subscribe on your favorite Podcast listening platform!

Like, Share, and Review us!

#leadershipinlawpodcast #leadershipinlaw #lawmarketingzone #marilynjenkins



Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Leadership in Law podcast with host Marilyn Jenkins. Cut through the noise, get actionable insights and inspiring stories delivered straight to your ears your ultimate podcast for navigating the ever-changing world of law firm ownership. In each episode, we dive deep into the critical topics that matter most to you, from unlocking explosive growth to building a thriving team. We connect you with successful firm leaders and industry experts who share their proven strategies and hard-won wisdom. So, whether you're a seasoned leader or just starting your journey as a law firm owner, the Leadership in Law podcast is here to equip you with the knowledge and tools you need to build a successful and fulfilling legal practice.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to another episode of the Leadership in Law podcast. I'm your host, marilyn Jenkins. Please join me in welcoming my guest, adam Koch, to the show today. Adam is the president and portfolio manager at Libertas Wealth Management Group Inc. A NAPFA-affiliated and fee-only fiduciary RIA firm located in Columbus, ohio. Adam grew up absorbing the power of deep, meaningful relationships that his father fostered in his optometry practice. This early exposure to entrepreneurialism sparked his desire to one day own a business where he could significantly impact others' lives. His professional journey began just 10 days before the tragic attack on the World Trade Center in 2001, and he has since guided his clients through four of the worst market crashes in US history. Adam has been named by Columbus Business First as one of their 20 people to know in finance, as a recipient of the 40 under 40 award, is ranked by Investopedia as one of the top 100 most influential financial advisors in the US, and is the winner of the coveted Better Business Bureau Torch Award for Ethics and Trust. Wow, I am excited to have you here, adam Welcome.

Speaker 3:

That was an amazing intro. If I'm not blushing then I'm colorblind so I can't tell, but anyway, Very cool.

Speaker 2:

Well, let's start out with a real technical question what's a fiduciary and what does it mean to the average investor?

Speaker 3:

That's a good question. That's one I talk about a lot because I think that more people should know about it. A true fiduciary because I can go on a rant here but a fiduciary is somebody who in our business, in the financial advisory world, financial planning, wealth management world, is a company or professional who has to do what's in the client's best interest, even if that means making less money for the firm. So that's what it. That's in one sentence. That's what it is.

Speaker 3:

The problem in our country is some laws have changed over the last decade and as a result of a lot of lobbying in Washington, as you could probably imagine and unfortunately it's it's. It's at a point now where the fiduciary, the fiduciary law, now says that firms can say and financial advisors can say that they're a fiduciary as long as they disclose when they're not acting in a fiduciary capacity. So it's harder for the consumer to determine who's really a fiduciary and who's not. So earlier in your intro, when you said that we're a NAPFA, registered fee, fee only, ria To be considered a true fiduciary, you have to be fee only and what that means is you have to have dropped all your brokerage licenses in order to consider yourself a true fiduciary? And that's one of the biggest questions we've ever gotten from a client. Actually, they said well, how's it enforced? Is it like the Hippocratic Oath, you know, you just put your hand on the Bible and say you promise to be good? And it's not like that.

Speaker 3:

Actually, the way it works is way back when we converted our firm to what 12 years ago now, to a true fiduciary, nafta-registered, fee-only firm. On my birthday, if I went one day further and I was going to have to retake the Series 7, series 24, series 63, all those licenses life, health, long-term care all those licenses were going to have to be retaken because the problem in our industry is commissions. When there are commissions that can be earned up front on investments of any kind, insurance of any kind, there are conflicts of interest that you know are going to cause a problem in the industry. So that's what a fiduciary is. It's somebody who legally cannot charge commissions because they just don't have the license to anymore. So they're a fee-only firm.

Speaker 2:

Okay, good to know. I wasn't really sure what the details was on that and so thinking about with business owners, especially law firm owners, why is it important to work with a fiduciary?

Speaker 3:

Because I think that you've done 90% of the research if you just look at true fiduciaries only and the way you do that. By the way, a free tip here go to napfaorg. It's the National Association for Personal Financial Advisors. So napfaorg, put in your zip code and it'll show you all the fiduciaries, like the true fiduciaries in your area, and then if you just interview two or three of those and find the right person who's a good fit for you personally, you've done 90% of the research, because you don't have to worry about all those conflicts of interest that exist in the brokerage world with the products and commissions and things like that. So I think it's important because fiduciaries focus on solutions-based planning, whether that be on the personal retirement planning side. So building a written financial plan that says, based on where I'm at today and when I'd like to have the choice to make work optional, how do I get there? Where do I save? How do I save and what types of accounts? How do I take care of my kids and get them through college? How do I take care of my parents and make sure I don't have to, you know, spend too much money taking care of them, because we're still living in this world where the sandwich generation exists, we're taking care of our kids and our parents. Sometimes, how do I make sure I take care of my tax situation and ensure that I'm not paying more than I should be to the government? How do I ensure that my family's covered if the worst were to happen?

Speaker 3:

I lost my brother seven years ago, very unexpectedly fell asleep on his motorcycle driving home one night, a hot, humid night, and he was divorced. He was divorced for two years, full custody of all four of his kids. One's autistic, so you can imagine the mess that ensued after that. But he had no life insurance. He had just been laid off two weeks prior and he had no life insurance. So making sure you have. I hate life insurance, we all hate insurance, right, but it's that necessary evil. So having a proper amount of insurance so if somebody does pass away, the whole plan doesn't blow up.

Speaker 3:

And then, speaking of attorneys, making sure there's an estate plan in place, making sure there's a buy sell agreement in place. If you own a business, making sure you're thinking about and planning for transitioning your business. Well, before you actually transition, you can't keep saying, well, I'm going to sell next year, I'm going to sell next year. You need to plan now to sell later, so that A you're ready. If you know, divorce, disagreements with partners, disease, parkinson's, alzheimer's you know all these things can happen and, by the way, you'll grow a whole lot faster, make a whole lot more money, be a whole lot happier and have more work-life balance by planning earlier anyway.

Speaker 2:

So if the fiduciary is going to help do all of the things that I need to look at if I intend to eventually exit, whether I mean including personal life and business life- Correct, yeah.

Speaker 3:

And if I were to give one more piece of advice, I guess, aside from hiring a fiduciary if you're a business owner, I would focus on people who have a SEPA designation or a similar designation that focus on exit planning. So they're used to working with business owners. They're used to business advisory advice, things like that. Not to say that people who don't have that designation or similar designations can't give that kinds of advice, but those people are obviously been trained, continuing education, they specialize in that, like we do at our office.

Speaker 2:

Okay, that's good to know because you know you always want to think of the exit way before you actually get an offer or something like that.

Speaker 3:

Totally agree, totally agree.

Speaker 2:

So what are the red flags? We're looking, looking at financial advisor. What red flags should we watch out for?

Speaker 3:

I think you want, as soon as you start, just have somebody who doesn't ask you enough questions and, of course, the question that might be asked in return would be well, how much is enough, right, how many? And I think that you you'll know when you sit down with somebody, when you're interviewing them, whether or not they're there, they know enough about you to give you advice. I think that would be a first big one. I think the second would be if you feel like you start getting advice too soon. So if people start peppering you with you should do this. You should do that before they know enough about you. That would be another one Big red flag.

Speaker 3:

I did this podcast year, probably two and a half years ago at this point, and it was titled it's still on YouTube. It's titled why Annuities Suck and when they Make Sense. Because, as much as I'm not a huge annuity fan, I think when people start trying to peddle annuities and sell annuities to you, I think that's a red flag. But it doesn't mean the person's bad or the advice is bad, it's just we always like to say annuities are great investments for some people, for some of your money. But oftentimes, if you're not with a fiduciary, especially and you're talking to somebody who's you know, you know peddling. One of the first things they talk about is hey, you ought to consider this annuity.

Speaker 3:

A lot of times they're. They think annuities are the best things for all people, for all your money, because they pay enormous commissions unless you're a fiduciary, which again we can't earn commissions. So one of the things I like to teach people because my personal passion is just saving people from bad advice and bad advisors. So I like to share little secrets like this. Like, for instance, if you're in an annuity that has a penalty to get out over, say five years, seven years, 10 years, 15 years, it's because a commission was paid to the person who sold it to you and because the insurance company has to recoup the commission paid in order to break even. And if you've ever been to places like Louisville and you've seen these insurance companies, they're not charities. I mean there's marble columns, the employees are wearing clothes, they're making money.

Speaker 2:

They're making money, it's true. I mean, look how many insurance companies actually sponsor professional sports. That's a lot of money, absolutely. That's interesting. I've talked to financial planners before and it's all about the annuities. I didn't realize it paid a dramatic commission.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I mean, the only annuities we've done at our office in the last five years have been fixed indexed annuities or equity indexed annuities, and the only reason we started doing them for the first time in my 23-year career was because interest rates went up. The Fed kept hiking rates and so all of a sudden, for the bond portion of your portfolio, you could have your money invested in something that had a guarantee of 5% or better, or you would get the stock market's return up to, say, a cap of 10%. You'd get what's called a performance trigger, which is kind of complicated. But basically, if the market was up 3%, you'd get whatever the trigger is so nine. If it was up 1%, you'd get nine. If it was up 6%, you'd get nine.

Speaker 3:

So I don't like to look at these investments as equity investments like stock investments. I look at them like they're guaranteed. They can't go down in value. So they would be good for the bond portion of your money if you're an investor who has a portfolio that has bonds or fixed income allocation to it. So that's made sense. Now, as rates start coming down here at some point, those aren't going to make any sense again, just like they didn't for the first two decades of my career because rates were so stupidly low. It's like who cares about two and a half to 3%. Right, that's inflation.

Speaker 2:

Right, interesting. Yeah, I vaguely looked at annuities before. It just didn't make sense at that particular time in my life so I just kind of moved on. But that is interesting to know that, luke, thinking about all the things that you can help with professionally and personal. What are the key mistakes? The financial mistakes that most business owners make.

Speaker 3:

Okay, that's a good question, because you're a business owner, I'm a business owner. We probably all made some of these mistakes right, I'm sure yeah.

Speaker 3:

I think that the first mistake that they make is not working on the business enough. And I think the hard part about saying that is that we hear it all the time. It's like a cliche, don't work in the business, work on the business. But I don't think that business owners really quite know what that means to work on it. I don't think that businesses really quite know what that means to work on it.

Speaker 3:

I think if they're taking some time off on Fridays in the summer, they feel like, oh, I'm doing good, you know I'm delegated pretty well, you know I'm taking time off. Look at me, you know pat myself on the back. But I think that you have to look at things Well. Ask yourself the questions Like have you worked on your business well over? Who's going to take care of the clients? And if you're like, well, I don't, it doesn't matter, like, when I'm, when I'm gone, you know my business is gone and you know cause I own a small business and you know when I'm gone the business is gone, it's like, okay, well, what about the clients? I mean, do you care about the clients? It's like, well, god, I never thought about that.

Speaker 3:

It's like, well, an attorney might want to have a continuity plan and agreement put in place along with a buy-sell agreement. So, heaven forbid, something happens to them. Their clients continue getting taken care of, which they care about. But, believe it or not, there might be an opportunity there to have a predetermined sale price that's very, very conservative but fair. That pays the spouse who isn't licensed as an attorney. Let's just say so they get something for the practice. You know, if you get in a car accident, or something like that.

Speaker 2:

Like a book of business. Yeah, like you organized the sale of a book of business. Yeah, that's interesting because most people think, well, if I'm gone it's not my problem, it's like I'm out.

Speaker 3:

It's an attitude thing right Now. If you don't have a life partner, if you're not married, I mean there is no other person in your life and there's no kids, then maybe you don't care and maybe it's not that big of a deal, but still I mean, I don't know. Continuity would be the first thing mistake people make. I think the second thing would be I'm focusing on smaller businesses right now I think the second thing would probably be treating the business like it's their job and they work for the company, versus like they own it. And what I mean by that is once a business gets to around a million dollars in revenue, so law practice doesn't matter any business, but we're talking law practices, I think, here. So I think when an attorney starts making, or their practice starts getting up north of a million, they need to hire a fractional CFO and they need to stop running their businesses if they're just looking back in a rearview mirror at here's what I made, here's what I spent, here's my tax bill. Make sure I do X, y and Z by the end of the year to reduce my tax bill as much as I can. Make sure I do some profit sharing, if I can, you know, by my tax filing deadline. That'll reduce my taxes a little bit.

Speaker 3:

And then next year I might hire somebody, I might not. I don't really know if I can afford them or not. We'll figure it out. Oh, I need to hire somebody. So you hire them and he's like Ooh, you know, that's a little tight right now. I mean, if you hire a fractional CFO, they'll not only do a better job at your rear view mirror, you know, looking at the past, but for the first time in your life you'll have forecasting. You'll know what your cash flow looks like. It'll be predictable, conservative, so you'll know how you can invest into your company, whether that be office space, new employees, new staff, the kind of staff you want to hire. So it's this level of freedom and liberation that you've never felt before. And I reiterate, you've got to start making some money first. Like I don't think it makes sense if you're making $250 a year, you know to hire one, but that would be a mistake, you know, just trying to do it go it alone. You know, I think you need that silent partner that knows the numbers.

Speaker 2:

Yes, because I think that is one thing that a lot of small business owners get into. They have some numbers in their head but they don't have all the numbers. And even having a bookkeeper in the beginning, just something so that you can keep that idea of where you are. But the working on your business, I think is huge. And having a day off a week is great, you know, getting your golf game in. But working on your business is not only just learning how to delegate but literally knowing where you are and where you want to go.

Speaker 2:

And I think that's incredibly important and, of course, we are into wealth building and saving taxes. So what is your take on wealth building? Tax efficient strategies for high income individuals.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, what's funny? Just before we jumped on today, we were just having a phone call with a new business owner client and we're talking a lot these days about what is something called cash balance plans. A lot of owners don't know about them. So, aside from the fact that owner's biggest asset is their business, in fact the statistic is 80% of business owners net worth is in their company. So, not to rewind here, but you know when an owner says if I'm gone like eh, whatever, I mean you're giving up 80% of your net worth. So I think continuity plans, buy-sell agreements and having a succession plan or an exit plan in place makes a lot of sense a business transition plan, but I digress.

Speaker 3:

I think that when we start talking about tax savings, having a retirement plan in place, one of the mistakes I see business owners make and I don't want to pick on attorneys here, but especially attorneys for some reason, I don't know why it is a lot of them have SEPs and SIMPLs. So SEP IRAs, simple IRAs, instead of 401ks, and there's nothing wrong with that as long as they're not really successful. But if you're a successful attorney or running a successful law practice, you're limiting your contribution maximum by having a simple. And yeah, your match is maybe a half percent lower than it would be, so your liabilities are lower. But the amount of money you're saving by only having to pay a 3% match instead of, say, a three and a half percent match or 4% match let's just say on a safe harbor 401k. So say 1% less is more than made up for by the tax savings you would have if you had a real big boy 401k. So the contribution maximums now are so much higher. If you do profit sharing you can save more at the end of the year.

Speaker 3:

And that profit sharing, by the way, once you've maxed out your 401k in a calendar year, you can still put more money away up until your tax filing deadline and you can make that decision later after you've kind of figured out your tax situation and you know how much. You know the dust has settled and the chips have fallen and you're like, okay, what do I have left? So you can make that decision later. But if you're in the, well, if you're in the, you know predicament where it's a good problem to have but you're 50 years of age or older, typically, that's kind of like the ideal client or subject for a cash balance plan.

Speaker 3:

You can not only max out your 401k and your profit sharing plan and put away more than $50,000 pre-tax, so deduct that against your tax return, but you can add on top of that a cash balance plan, which is it's a silly name in my opinion. I just call it an executive benefit plan. It's like, think of it like a pension plan for your business, but you're running it. The individual we were just talking to, the owner we were just talking to on the phone here right before we, before you and I jumped on and started recording she's going to be able to put away $150,000 per year pre-tax against her business.

Speaker 3:

And now she's looking to add her husband to the plan and have him stop putting money into his 401k at his the corporation he works, so he can max out this plan instead and then do the cash balance plan on top of that and start saving somewhere in the ballpark of $250,000 to $300,000 per year pre-tax.

Speaker 3:

So that's cool stuff and especially for those of us who feel like we started too late, we need to catch up. I feel like I'm kind of behind in the retirement planning game, which is, let's be honest, like 95% of people feel that way. This is a solution to that, and most of us have our best success in our highest income earning years that last 10 to 15 years before we quit working.

Speaker 2:

True, very true. And let's talk about quit working. I want to talk about exiting and exit plans. What is some of the best ways that attorneys can transition out of their practice or business owners for maximum financial benefits?

Speaker 3:

Sure, yeah. So that's a big, that's a lot to unpack, but the first thing you got to have is a plan in place, and this is kind of a big initiative, I think, in this country right now, and that's why I mentioned SEPA, which is SEPA stands for Certified Exit Planning Advisor. There's another designation out there, I think, that's headquartered in California, but any kind of certified individual who's an expert in exit planning is somebody that you should be talking to about this. You need to well, you need to plan at least two to three years before you sell. That's the big thing.

Speaker 3:

I think the biggest mistake people make is they just keep saying things like I'm not ready to sell, I'm not ready to sell, I'll sell next year, I'll think about it next year, and they keep kicking that can down the road until, like we were talking earlier, something happens and again we call it the five Ds divorce, disability, disease, death. So I mean these things can happen that just derail the whole company and all of a sudden now it's either a fire sale or you're getting nothing for it. Another statistic that's interesting is 80% of businesses don't sell, they dissolve, and that's why it's a problem in this country and that's why we need to bring awareness to the community when it comes to why people need to start planning earlier than later. As you mentioned earlier, I always joke it's kind of like CrossFit. I'm not a CrossFitter, but they say in CrossFit the whole point is being ready for anything anytime. Well, business transition planning and exit planning is you do it now, whether you're selling in three years or 13 years, so you can be ready to sell anytime?

Speaker 3:

What if a competitor, what if a bigger law firm comes up and says hey, been watching, you saw your social media posts. You look like you're doing really well. We're looking to acquire. What do you think? And you're somebody who hasn't done an ounce of planning. You're not going to have a clue how to answer that question, or even come to the table and have a discussion, and you're going to have zero control because they're ready to acquire right, they've done the analysis, they know what they're looking for.

Speaker 3:

You're not the first company they've talked to. So you're going to look at this like you have zero control of the situation. You have no idea what you're talking about. But if you start planning, the rule number one is you got to start planning at least two to three years beforehand. The way the plan works is you'll spend between six and 12 months building a plan to reduce your risk, so for instance, like customer concentration. So if you've got, you know, a million dollars in revenue, we'll just say we'll go big. If you've got $10 million in revenue and your top three clients account for 4 million of that, that's a problem.

Speaker 1:

Now it's not a problem to you, but to a buyer.

Speaker 3:

They're thinking, man, if we lose a couple of those clients all of a sudden, the value of this practice goes down pretty quickly, right? So?

Speaker 3:

customer concentration is an issue. Another issue is continuity with executives. You know so customer concentration is an issue. Another issue is continuity with executives, key staff. You need to have retention agreements in place, contracts where they get paid a little bit more like salaries, bonuses, things like that if you stay for X number of months or years because the buyer is going to want don't want to hear this, but we need to get you kind of out of the business and the reason owners don't want to hear it is it's my baby, right?

Speaker 3:

What do you mean? Get me out of the business Like I want to be important, this is my life, and it's like yeah, but don't look at it that way. Look at it like I want more work-life balance. I want to spend time with my family, I want to you have the more choices you have, and if you have all this money but no time to spend it, what's the point of the money?

Speaker 3:

So you want to have more work-life balance and, ironically, when you have more work-life balance and you're delegating better and you have continuity agreements and your customer concentration is diversified and you have buy-sell agreements in place, all of a sudden the company is worth a whole lot more. Not only is it ready to sell, but it's worth more to the buyer, not only on an absolute basis from a standpoint of profits, but on a multiple basis, because obviously every industry has its own multiple and there's a range. You can sell for a really low multiple because all your intangibles are out of whack, or you can have those intangibles locked up tight and you can sell for a higher multiple and it's just all about pretending you're a buyer, walking into your business and saying would I buy me and what would be my concerns?

Speaker 2:

I love that. So you could also. You know, in the encompassing all of that, your brands, your contracts, so you're going to have NDAs with your staff. Is that important?

Speaker 3:

Oh for sure. Yeah, Most owners, when they're looking to think about selling down the road, they obviously they don't want to talk to anybody about it yet. They want it to be confidential. But once they've started planning that first year, let's just say it takes to build a plan and let's just say there's 10 things that we can focus on to increase the absolute value and relative value of the company. We're really only going to focus on five of those, Just hypothetically. We're not going to try and do all 10.

Speaker 3:

We're going to focus on the five. They're going to really move the needle.

Speaker 3:

And back to the fractional CFO. By the way, once the plan's done, now, the fractional CFO takes the plan, comes into the business and holds your hand. I always joke like what we build at our office business transition plans, exit plans. It's like a diet and exercise plan. Most people don't just go to the gym and do it. They, most people don't just go to the gym and do it. They don't eat well. So having the fractional CFO is like having a personal trainer take you to the gym, making you do the workouts, and then having a personal chef, which is also the fractional CFO. That's cooking the food for you and saying eat this, not that. So most owners don't have the time to work on the business. But having that fractional CFO, take the plan, implement the plan like a personal trainer, implement the plan like a personal trainer. Make sure that we're implementing over the course of, say, one to two years, after which now we're ready to go.

Speaker 3:

Now, if you're a business that you're thinking I don't want to sell for 13 years, 15 years, doing this now is going to make you attractive to a competitive buyer that you never thought you'd sell to out of the blue. One day. You're at the gym, let's just say and another attorney is there and they say hey, you know, we're interested. Now you know everything about this stuff. You're you're educated and you're ready. But nevermind that. Let's just say you're not going to sell. Your profits will increase. You will make more money faster, the company will grow faster in value, you will have a more efficient company, employees will be happier, you will have more free time. If you do and that's the. That's what's so counterintuitive People think exit planning.

Speaker 3:

Well, I'm not exit planning because I'm not exiting yet, but if you do it now, you're going to. You're going to be so much better off than waiting until later. It's kind of like waiting till later to start working out and eating. Well, I'm getting a little nervous. Maybe I'll start working on it later. It's like, well, maybe you should have started earlier, right?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, I just. I spoke with a business owner not too long ago that he had a very successful exit last year. But it was unexpected, it was tremendously nerve-wracking. It was a nine, seven or nine month process. He didn't expect it, he hadn't planned to do that or one of those things like in your head I, I, I, eventually, I want to exit. And it just happened like you said. Somebody just came up to him and said hey, we want this, is what we want, we want to buy that. And went great, they negotiated a number and then it was all of these months of getting the paperwork together, getting the numbers together, getting all the things organized that like you're talking about. He said it was incredibly nerve-wracking, especially when you go a month without talking to them, the person you know, the company that was going to buy you, because you're working on paperwork.

Speaker 2:

But it was the silence was. He said it was so stressful. But I agree. I think the being prepared is one of the big parts of, like you said, working on your business and being prepared for the next step, no matter when that's going to be, and it'll take a lot of pressure off of you to have that succession plan or exit plan sitting there, just ready to go 100%.

Speaker 2:

Adam, this has been great. This has been really informative. I think you've given us some great information. Thank you so much for your time. Where can our listeners connect with you and reach out in case they want to talk with you about their succession plan or any of their financial stuff?

Speaker 3:

If you're looking for information on business transition planning, exit planning, then head to elevateandexitcom. So elevateandexitcom. And if you're looking for kind of a conglomeration of exit planning and personal retirement planning for you and your business, go to libertaswealthcom. So L-I-B-E-R-T-A-S, so Liberty with an A-S at the end LibertasWealthcom. And you can always find me on LinkedIn, of course.

Speaker 2:

Great, and we'll make sure that we have all those links in the show notes. And again, very informative. This has been a great conversation, thank you so much for joining me today for this episode.

Speaker 2:

As we wrap up, I'd love for you to do two things. First, subscribe to this podcast so you don't miss an episode, and if you find value here, I'd love it if you would rate it and review it. That really does make a difference in helping other people to discover this podcast. Second, you can connect with me on LinkedIn to keep up with what I'm currently learning and thinking about, and if you're ready to take the next step with a digital strategist to help you grow your law firm, I'd be honored to help you. Just go to lawmarketingzonecom to book a call with me. Stay tuned for our next episode next week. Until then, as always, thanks for listening to Leadership in Law podcast and be sure to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.

Speaker 1:

So you don't miss the next episode, our website at lawmarketingzonecom. From there, connect with other listeners, access valuable resources and stay up to date on the latest episodes. Don't forget to subscribe and leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform. Until next time, keep leading with vision and keep growing your firm.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Marilyn Jenkins

Host