How do we handle a situation where the personal financial goals of our shareholders do not align during the Legacy planning phase of our exit work?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

During the Legacy phase of the Step by Step Exit framework, we identify your post-exit life goals, financial objectives, and non-financial priorities. It is common for business partners or family shareholders to have different timelines, financial needs, or visions for the ideal buyer. We do not ignore these differences. Instead, we bring them into our sessions and use the Issues Solving Track to reach a resolution. As your facilitator, my role is to help you IDS® these misalignments objectively. We look at the data, calculate your Value Gaps, and determine what the business must achieve to satisfy everyone's objectives. Sometimes this means designing a transition plan where one partner exits early while another stays to run the business. Other times, it means adjusting our target valuation to meet the financial needs of all parties. By addressing these personal and financial dynamics openly during our structured sessions, we prevent backroom politics and ensure that your entire leadership team is fully aligned on the exit strategy before we ever take the business to market.