After long service as a United States Air Force officer, Todd transitioned to independent practice in family wealth services in 1992. He specializes in asset protection planning and complex tax planning for families that own middle-market companies. In particular, he focuses on tax mitigation for business dispositions. Todd collaborates with a wide range of professionals that touch business sales: exit planners, M&A advisors, accountants, attorneys, and investment professionals. Todd holds a law degree, an advanced legal degree in taxation, and a doctoral degree specializing in finance. Todd is a contributor to Forbes Magazine online; his column focuses on issues confronting families that own middle-market companies.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

How to play “nice” with the IRS

When insurance may or may not be needed in estate planning

Strategies on how to save up to 80% in taxes when you sell

Conflicts to be aware of among advisors during a transaction

What a ‘private letter ruling’ is

Where an Exit Planner can help in your transaction

Nothing like Uncle Sam taking half of your business proceeds when you sell… that’s why you sold your soul and worked your ass off for the last couple decades right?!?!? Good news folks, we’ve got someone on the show today who can show you how. As a partner at the Integrated Wealth Counsel, Todd Ganos is a specialist in tax planning who makes it his business to stay up-to-date with the constantly evolving tax regulations and legal precedents.

If there is one episode of my show so far that fulfils the purpose of “bringing our listeners all the information I wish I would have had before we sold”, this is truly it. I know, based on some of the conversations I have had with Todd, that there were a few things we could have done to put more than 7 figures INTO our pockets had we had the right advisors and the right planning.

Don’t worry this isn’t some boring tax code episode, Todd shares with us colorful stories about what is possible in the shell game of the tax code and what to look out for when hiring your advisors.

Todd shares with us a lot more than the technical detail of tax planning and estate management. He really helped shed some light on the many conflicts of interest that play out among the different parties sitting around the table during a business sale, and how business owners can avoid being caught out by the wrong ‘advice’.

An interesting fact to start us off:

70% of all wealth in the US is in the hands of first-generation business owners. Tax planning and succession management are therefore fundamental to the prosperity of a large section of America as a whole.

“70% of all wealth in the US is in the hands of first-generation business owners.”

General advice from Todd:

When selling your business, make sure you use somebody who specializes in business sales, not somebody who spends their everyday working life advising clients on how to properly claim their travel expenses. So often a CPA or attorney is assigned to manage a sale who simply isn’t qualified to do it. Just because your CPA drafted your articles of incorporation doesn’t mean that they are capable of doing the biggest transition IN YOUR LIFE! It’s vitally important that there is someone in your camp who is up with the latest legal rulings and law changes, and who doesn’t have an ulterior motive during the sale (more on this later).

Todd’s method for saving a family business money:

In Todd’s words, “there is no cookie cutter solution”, but Todd shared with us a method that has been tested by 80+ favorable rulings from the IR