Close to three-quarters of privately held business owners expect to transition or exit within the next decade. That shift could involve an estimated $10 to $14 trillion in exit-related wealth, yet many owners remain unprepared.
Michael Gold, who leads Gold Family Wealth in Westport, Connecticut, thinks he knows why. The trouble, he argues, is rarely a shortage of expertise. Owners are often surrounded by credentialed professionals who work independently and seldom compare notes.
The Cost of Late Planning
Gold has watched this play out across a 25-year career. Some business owners, he notes, have had to push back a sale by a full year to re-characterize assets and avoid excessive tax drag. Those delays usually trace back to planning done in isolated silos, where the estate attorney, CPA, and investment advisor each handled their piece alone.
“People do not think about the end in mind early enough,” Gold says.
His remedy is coordination. Under what he calls “orchestration, not accumulation,” Michael Gold Westport firm brings a family’s current advisors together under one unified plan. Structural problems that could derail an exit get flagged years ahead of time. Tax implications are stress-tested across different liquidity scenarios. Philanthropic vehicles are built to fit the succession plan, and family governance frameworks are matched to estate documents.
Seeing the Whole Board
The Westport firm’s approach grows out of its dedicated practice for ultra-high-net-worth families, which Gold describes as “the intellectual engine of the entire organization.” Frameworks developed there, including advanced modeling and multigenerational governance, are shared across the firm so each specialist understands where their work fits.
Michael Gold, a 2025 Forbes Best-in-State Wealth Advisor, frames this as a transparency issue. Owners preparing to sell need more than clear fee disclosures. They need to see whether their advisors are pulling in the same direction.
“You have to look under the hood,” he says, explaining that every part of a family’s finances deserves review for gaps and fixes.
For owners facing a sale in the coming years, his message is plain: start the coordinated conversation early, before the deal timeline starts making decisions for you. See related link for additional information.
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