Buy-sell agreements — and the funding behind them
An agreement without funding is a promise nobody can keep. We review triggering events, valuation language, and whether the life and disability funding actually matches today's business value.
Business succession planning
Business succession planning that is funded, written, and coordinated.
Most owners have some pieces — an agreement in a drawer, a policy from years ago, a rough idea of who takes over. Very few have those pieces agreeing with each other. Evan Belaga, CFP®, CLU, ChFC, has spent four decades helping owners of closely held and family businesses connect succession, buy-sell funding, risk protection, and their own retirement income into one plan.
- Independent fiduciary — no product quotas
- In practice since 1982
- Closely held & family businesses
- Works alongside your CPA and attorney
What business succession planning actually covers
Succession is not a single document. It is the answer to a set of uncomfortable questions: if an owner died tonight, who owns the company tomorrow, who pays the family, and at what price? If an owner were disabled for a year, does payroll survive? When you step away by choice, what income replaces the business — and how much of the sale does tax take?
A plan is complete when the documents, the funding, and the personal financial picture all give the same answer. That is the standard we work to.
Succession and ownership transition
Family successor, key employee, partner, or outside sale — each path has different tax, timing, and control consequences. We map the route before it is chosen for you.
Disability and key-person protection
Disability is the most common owner exit nobody plans for. We stress-test what happens to payroll, debt covenants, and your household income if you cannot work for 12 months.
Long-term care planning
A care event in your family can quietly drain the proceeds a lifetime of ownership was meant to fund. We plan for it in advance rather than in a crisis.
Owner retirement income
The exit is not the plan — the income after it is. We build a coordinated picture of sale proceeds, qualified plans, insurance, and taxes so you know what your business actually needs to produce.
Coordinating your advisors
Your CPA, attorney, and insurance carriers each hold a piece. We work alongside them so the documents, the funding, and the tax plan agree with each other.
How the work is done
Three steps, no pressure at any of them.
01
Discovery
A candid conversation about the business, the owners, the family, and what you want the transition to look like.
02
Gap analysis
We review the buy-sell, existing coverage, plan documents, and beneficiary designations to find where the plan breaks under a real event.
03
Coordinated plan
A written plan you and your partners can act on — funded, documented, and reviewed as the business value changes.
Owner experiences
What owners found when we looked closely.
“Evan looked at the business and our personal plan as one picture. Our buy-sell was badly out of date — we would never have caught it on our own.”
David R.
Owner, contracting firm
“Straightforward and patient, and he never once pitched a product. He showed us what a disability would have done to the company, then fixed it.”
James P.
Owner-operator since 2019
“We finally have a succession plan, funded and in writing, plus a clear path to the income we'll need when we step away.”
Susan & Michael T.
Family business owners
Questions owners ask first
- What is business succession planning?
- Business succession planning is the process of deciding — in writing and in advance — who takes over ownership and leadership of a company, on what terms, and with what money. A complete plan pairs legal documents such as a buy-sell agreement with the funding that makes them work, and connects both to the owner's personal retirement, tax, and estate picture.
- When should an owner start?
- Well before a sale or retirement date. Succession is triggered by death, disability, dispute, and divorce as often as by a planned exit — and those events do not wait for the plan to be ready. Most owners we work with begin five to ten years out, then review annually as value changes.
- How is this different from what my attorney or CPA already did?
- Attorneys draft the agreement and CPAs handle the tax reporting; neither is typically responsible for confirming the agreement is funded, the coverage is in force, and the owner's retirement income still works after the transfer. That coordination is the work done here, alongside your existing advisors.
Your next step
Start with a discovery call.
Share a few details about your business and Evan will reach out personally. No cost, no obligation — a straightforward conversation about your succession, buy-sell, protection, and retirement income plan.
Evan Belaga, CFP®, CLU, ChFC
Independent fiduciary planner for business owners since 1982.
We respond within one business day. Your business details stay private — no lists, no spam, ever.