Personal balance sheet
Separated from the company, updated quarterly, readable in a page.
For owners of private companies
Your business is the plan.
Until it isn't.
Granite Row Capital is a fee-only, fiduciary advisory firm for business owners. We handle the personal side of the balance sheet while you run the company: the cash, the taxes, the exit when it comes, and what the money does afterward.
Fee-only. Flat retainer.No commissions, no percentage of the company, no fee from any transaction.
Fiduciary, in writing.Your interest first, every time, by law and by contract.
Port Ellery and by video.Owners in 14 states. Quarterly in person if you want it.
Where you are
Pick the one that sounds like you.
The work changes with the stage. So does the first ninety days.
Most of your net worth is in one company. Good. Now protect the rest.
Owners in growth mode usually have a thin personal balance sheet, a tax bill that depends on decisions made in December, and no plan for the year the company has a bad year. We build the personal side so it can take a hit.
- Personal balance sheet, separated from the company.What you own outside the business, what it would cover, and how long.
- Cash and reserves.Operating cash, distributions, and a personal reserve sized to the company's worst plausible year.
- Entity, compensation, and retirement plan review.With your CPA: salary versus distributions, the right qualified plan, and what to do with the tax savings.
- Key-person and buy-sell coverage.What exists, what it would actually pay, and who owns the policy.
First 90 days
A personal balance sheet you can read in one page, a reserve target, and a short list of changes to make before year end, agreed with your CPA.
The moves that change the tax on a sale take years. Start them now.
Two to five years out is when the real planning happens: entity structure, trusts for the next generation, qualified small business stock, and the question nobody asks early enough, which is how much you need the sale to net.
- Your number.What the sale needs to net, after tax and after the life you actually want, so the first offer is measured against something.
- Pre-sale structure.With your attorney and CPA: gifting, trusts, charitable structures, and QSBS eligibility, decided while there is still time.
- Readiness.The personal side of diligence: clean books, documented comp, retirement plan compliance, and a plan for the key people.
- The team.Banker, M&A attorney, tax counsel: who you need, when to engage them, and what each should cost.
First 90 days
Your number, a structure memo reviewed with your attorney, and a readiness checklist with owners and dates.
You have a term sheet. Everything moves fast now. We slow the money down.
Between LOI and close, the deal team is working for the deal. We work for you: reading the economics, modeling the earnout and the rollover, and getting the receiving accounts and the tax estimates ready before the wire lands.
- Deal economics, in your terms.Cash at close, escrow, earnout, rollover equity, and what each means for your net.
- Tax estimate and payment plan.Federal and state, installment versus lump, and the quarterly estimates that follow.
- Where the money goes on day one.Accounts opened, cash laddered, nothing invested in a hurry.
- Last-chance structure.What can still be done before signing, and what cannot.
First 90 days
A one-page net-proceeds model, a tax reserve, and accounts ready to receive. Then nothing for sixty days, on purpose.
The wire cleared. The hard part is deciding what the money is for.
After a sale the questions are different: how much to set aside forever, how much to put to work, how much to give, and whether to do it again. We build the plan before the portfolio, and we are paid the same either way.
- The floor.The amount that, invested conservatively, covers your life no matter what. It is set first and left alone.
- Investment policy.Written, boring, and followed: allocation, rebalancing rules, and what we will never buy.
- Giving and the next generation.Donor-advised funds, family entities, and the conversations with adult children.
- The next venture.How much you can put into the next company without touching the floor.
First 90 days
The floor, the investment policy statement, and a giving plan. Capital goes to work on a schedule, not on a feeling.
What we do
Six things, done together.
Cash and distributions
Reserves, distribution policy, and the line between company cash and yours.
Tax planning, with your CPA
Entity, compensation, qualified plans, and the pre-sale moves that take years.
Exit planning
Your number, the structure, the readiness work, and the team around the deal.
Investment management
Included in the retainer. A written policy, low-cost funds, and no products of our own.
Estate and succession
Coordinated with your attorney so the documents, the titles, and the plan agree.
Exit readiness
How ready are you, honestly?
Ten things a buyer's diligence team will ask for in the first week, and a seller's advisors should have settled a year earlier. Tick what is already in place.
Nothing is stored. It is a mirror, not a form.
In place today
Tick the ones that are done and we will tell you what the gaps usually cost.
Fees
Flat retainers. Set in writing before we start.
The retainer is based on the complexity of your situation, not the size of your accounts, and it includes investment management. It does not change when the sale closes.
Owner
$12,000 / year
One operating company, one household, no sale on the horizon yet.
- Personal balance sheet and cash plan
- Annual tax planning with your CPA
- Investment management, all accounts
- Two planning meetings, quarterly reviews
Owner, pre-sale
$24,000 / year
A sale in the next two to five years, or more than one entity.
- Everything in Owner
- Exit planning: your number, structure, readiness
- Coordination of the deal team
- Monthly check-ins in the year of the sale
Post-sale
$36,000 / year
After the transaction, or households with trusts, partnerships, and giving entities.
- Everything in Owner, pre-sale
- Investment policy and the floor
- Trust, entity, and giving coordination
- Family meetings, annual
Retainers are billed quarterly in advance and reviewed each year. Project work outside a retainer, such as a one-time deal review, is quoted as a fixed fee in writing. Fund expenses and custodian costs are separate and disclosed. We receive no compensation from any transaction, product, or referral.
Process
Ninety days to a working plan.
Week 1
Working session
Ninety minutes, in person or by video. You walk us through the company and the household. We tell you what we would do first and what it would cost.
Weeks 2 to 4
Gather and model
We collect what we need from you, your CPA, and your attorney, and build the balance sheet, the cash plan, and the tax picture.
Weeks 5 to 8
The plan, in order
A short written plan and a working meeting to go through it. Every item has an owner and a date.
Week 9 onward
Execute and review
We carry out what is ours, chase what is theirs, and meet quarterly. The plan is a document that changes.
The first session is on us.
Bring the questions you have not been able to ask anyone who was not selling something. You will leave with our read on your situation and a written proposal, or an honest answer that we are not the right firm.
Request a working session
Partners
Three partners. Every client knows all three.
We cap the firm at forty households so that stays true.
Samuel Okafor, CFP®, CEPA
Managing Partner
Founded Granite Row in 2012 after a decade in corporate finance at a family-owned manufacturer that sold while he was there. Leads the exit planning work.
Hanna Berg, CFA, CFP®
Partner, Investments
Writes every investment policy statement and runs the portfolios. Formerly on the investment staff of a university endowment.
Leo Marchetti, CPA/PFS
Director of Planning
Builds the tax models and works directly with each client's CPA and attorney. Spent twelve years in the tax practice of a regional accounting firm.
FAQ
Straight answers.
Do you sell businesses?
No. We are not an investment bank or a business broker and we take no fee from any transaction. We sit on your side of the table, help you prepare, and work with the banker and the attorney you choose.
Why a flat retainer instead of a percentage of assets?
Because for most owners the largest asset is the company, and nobody should be paid a percentage of that. The retainer is set by the complexity of your situation, in writing, before we start, and it does not change when the sale closes.
Who is this not for?
Owners who want a stock picker, or who want the retainer to go away after the sale. Our work is the planning, and the planning is most of the value in the two years before and the two years after a transaction.
Can you work with my CPA and attorney?
That is the job. We coordinate the professionals you already have, we do not replace them, and we will tell you plainly if one of them should be replaced.
How far in advance of a sale should we talk?
Three to five years is ideal, because the moves that reduce the tax on a sale take time. Twelve months still helps. The week after a letter of intent is late but not too late.