By Tom Schiller, CPA, CFP®
It usually starts with a phone call or an email that is friendlier than you expected. A group you have never heard of has been watching your business, and they would like to talk. Maybe you run a dental practice, a medical group, an accounting firm, or an advisory firm like ours. Whatever the field, the pattern is the same. Private equity has spent the last several years buying up profitable, well-run professional businesses, and the offers are real, the numbers can be large, and the attention is flattering.
Before you respond, it helps to slow down and look at what is actually on the table. A sale is a liquidity event, and like most liquidity events, the first decisions you make are often the hardest to reverse later.
What Private Equity Actually Buys
The appeal is straightforward. A private equity buyer brings a check that is often larger than anything an internal buyer could put together, and they bring it now. For an owner who has spent decades building something, that can mean real diversification, a funded retirement, and the freedom to stop carrying the whole operation alone.
There are operational upsides too. Many buyers fold your business into a larger platform with shared technology, back-office support, marketing, and purchasing power you could never justify on your own. For owners who are tired of running payroll and managing a lease, handing those headaches to someone else has genuine value.
This is the good part, and it is worth taking seriously. Not every private equity deal is a cautionary tale.
Where it Gets Complicated
The structure is rarely as clean as the headline number suggests. A large share of the purchase price is often tied to an earnout, meaning you only collect the full amount if the business hits targets after you sell. You may be asked to roll a portion of your proceeds back into the new entity, so a slice of your wealth stays at risk under someone else’s control.
Then there is the second-bite idea, the promise that your rolled equity will pay off again when the platform itself is sold a few years later. Sometimes that happens. Sometimes the next sale is smaller, slower, or never comes. The point is not that these terms are bad but that the real value of the deal lives in the fine print, not the cover page.
The Part That Is Not in the Term Sheet
The hardest cost to measure is cultural. After a sale, decisions that used to be yours now run through a committee focused on growth and margin. Staffing, pricing, the client or patient experience, the small judgment calls that made your business yours, all of it can change. Many sellers describe the same surprise: the money was as promised, but the place no longer felt like the one they built.
None of this makes private equity the wrong answer. For some owners it is exactly right. It just means the choice deserves a clear-eyed look at everything you are trading, not only what you are receiving.
The Other Path: Selling to Your Own Team
There is another option that often gets overlooked, which is selling to the people already inside your business. We have a particular fondness for this route because we recently completed our own internal succession, transitioning ownership to the next generation of advisors here rather than to an outside buyer.
An internal transition usually pays out over a longer horizon, which means it asks for more patience and careful tax planning. What it preserves is continuity. Your clients keep the relationships they trust, your team keeps the culture you built, and you keep a say in how the handoff unfolds. For owners whose name is on the door and whose reputation is the asset, that continuity can be worth as much as the headline price.
The First 90 Days Decide a Lot
Whichever direction you lean, the early window is where the lasting decisions get made. How the deal is structured, how the proceeds are taxed, what gets reinvested, and how the after-sale income supports the rest of your life are choices that are difficult to walk back once the documents are signed.
This is exactly the moment a sale stops being a business decision and becomes a financial planning decision. The proceeds need a home, the tax bill needs to be managed, and your personal plan needs to absorb a number that may be the largest single event of your financial life.
At Wealth Dimensions, we help owners think through a sale before the terms are final, and we coordinate directly with your attorney, your CPA, and your insurance professionals so the deal you sign supports the life you want afterward. That coordination is part of the Financial Playbook we build with every client, so the transition moves forward as one plan rather than a stack of disconnected decisions.
If you are weighing an offer, or simply want to understand your options before one arrives, we are glad to be a sounding board. To schedule a meeting with our team, call (513) 554-6000 or visit wealthdimensions.com.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I take a private equity offer for my business?
There is no universal answer. A private equity sale can deliver a larger, faster payout and relieve you of operational burdens, but the value often depends on earnouts, rolled equity, and terms that are easy to overlook. The right decision depends on your timeline, your tax picture, and what you want your life to look like after the sale. At Wealth Dimensions, we help owners model the real after-tax outcome of an offer and compare it against alternatives like internal succession before anything is signed.
What is internal succession and how is it different from selling to private equity?
Internal succession means selling your business to the people who already work in it, usually over a longer payout period. Compared with an outside sale, it tends to preserve culture, client relationships, and your continued influence over the transition, while requiring more deliberate tax and cash-flow planning. Wealth Dimensions completed its own internal succession, and we draw on that experience when we help other owners structure theirs.
How do I make sure a business sale fits the rest of my financial plan?
A sale touches your taxes, your investments, your estate plan, and your future income all at once, so those pieces need to be coordinated rather than handled separately. The most productive approach is to have your financial advisor lead the conversation among your attorney, CPA, and insurance professionals so every decision reflects the same set of facts. This kind of coordination is a hallmark of how we work at Wealth Dimensions.
About Tom
Tom Schiller, CPA, CFP®, is a Partner and Financial Advisor at Wealth Dimensions, an independent wealth management firm based in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he specializes in wealth transfer, minimizing capital gains taxes, and planning for liquidity events. Drawing on his extensive background in tax, assurance and wealth management at a national accounting firm, he delivers comprehensive, tailored financial planning to high-income clients and business owners. He holds an MBA from Northern Kentucky University and the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® designation.