Everlake
Financial Planning Service for Business Owners & Directors
Introduction
Running a business requires time, energy and commitment. Success doesn’t happen overnight. Building and managing your team, generating sales, keeping your customers satisfied, working with suppliers and dealing with banks all require your attention. It is difficult to juggle the many competing demands on your time.
In addition to the demands of your business you also have family commitments to consider. Supporting your children through education, starting their career or buying their first home are big milestones for many of us.
Your family may also be involved in your business, and this requires consideration of management succession and passing on ownership and control to the next generation. These are complex issues that require careful and timely planning.
Very often when running a business, immediate considerations can take priority over medium term ambitions. This is an area where we believe we can help you.
In working with our business clients, we focus on issues that drive value over the medium to longterm. We work with you and your other professional advisers to design and structure your business in a way that works for you and your family.
How Everlake Can Help
We bring years of experience in advising business owners and company directors, offering clear, strategic guidance to optimise your financial position. We work alongside your existing professional advisers to ensure a seamless and tax-efficient approach to your business and personal finances.
We understand the pressures of running a business because we have been in your position. Our approach is pragmatic, tailored, and focused on long-term value creation.
Some of the ways that we can assist:
• Identify personal financial inefficiencies and hidden risks in your current structure.
• Challenge outdated advice that may no longer be in your best interest.
• Help you to understand and implement tax and legal strategies effectively, ensuring they are executed correctly.
• Align your business and personal financial goals, helping you extract value while minimising tax liabilities.
• Ensure clarity and control, so that you have a clear understanding of your financial position, and the actions required to optimise it.
How we work with you & other professional advisers
Financial planning for business owners and directors is not a one-time activity, it is an ongoing process that requires careful thought, collaboration, and execution over the medium to long term.
Business owners can find themselves receiving fragmented advice from separate multiple professionals (accounting, legal, tax, etc), leaving them without a clear, co-ordinated strategy. That’s where Everlake comes in.
We work with your other professional advisers, your management team and/or your family where appropriate, to ensure robust planning and ongoing implementation.
Our role is to take a step back and provide a long-term, strategic perspective on your financial planning.
We can work with your existing advisers or introduce you to specialists within our network who have experience in working with business owners and directors like you. Our approach is holistic, ensuring that every financial decision contributes to a broader, long-term strategy.
Investment Planning
Many business owners find themselves with surplus funds but are unsure how to use them.
Whether investing within the business, acquiring property, or extracting personal wealth, we help you to decide how to use your funds and structure investments to align with long-term business and personal financial goals.
We also review existing investments to ensure that they fit well within the current business strategy and overall financial plan for the company.
Company Health Check
Businesses evolve, and their financial structures should evolve with them. Many business owners and directors operate with financial arrangements or structures that may have been suitable years ago but are no longer optimal for their current stage of growth or operating. We can assist you with a Company Owner focused health check.
This involves reviewing key aspects of the business’s financial structure, including:
• Debt - understanding the ideal mix of debt and equity to support business growth while minimising financial risks.
• Shareholder agreements - ensuring shareholder agreements reflect current business realities and protect owners from potential disputes.
• Key Person Insurance - many businesses rely on a few key individuals. Key person insurance can provide financial protection if a crucial member of the team dies or is no longer able to work due to an illness or serious injury
Retirement Planning
A business is usually an owner’s largest asset and primary source of income. Without proper retirement planning, they risk relying too heavily on the business to fund their retirement.
We help business owners structure their finances to ensure a secure and tax-efficient retirement.
Making the most of allowable pension contributions is the most tax efficient way to take money out of a company and build retirement savings. This is particularly true for directors who run the company but don’t have a shareholding.
Planning in advance is important so that the business can be structured in the correct manner for when the time comes for you to retire.
We assist with the planning of a business sale to help ensure that when a business is sold, tax reliefs such as Retirement Relief and Entrepreneurial Relief are used by the owners to retain more wealth.
Whether through a sale, succession, or winding down, having a clear exit strategy in place ensures a smooth transition to retirement.
Succession Planning
Passing on their company may be one of the most complex financial transitions a business owner will face.
Whether handing over to family members, selling to an external party, or structuring a management buyout, careful planning, ideally a number of years in advance, is required.
Structuring the ownership and shareholding of the business so that value and/or control can migrate over time to management, or the next generation should be carefully considered
We review several areas when developing a succession plan with business owners including:
• Company structure and the use of holding companies
• Properties owned by the company
• Employing family members
• Identifying key management to continue to run/take over the business
• Winding up the business
Whether the plan for your business is family succession, selling the business, or winding it up altogether there are many areas to consider so that you can ensure a tax efficient exit that retains the maximum benefit to you.
Remuneration Planning
One of the most common challenges that business owners face is determining how to pay themselves in a tax-efficient way while maximising the benefits available to them.
Many owners and directors unknowingly structure their remuneration in a way that results in unnecessary tax liabilities. A well-designed remuneration strategy should strike the right balance between salary, pension contributions, and other benefits.
Business owners can also fall into the trap of unknowingly paying PRSI under the wrong category, affecting their entitlements to social welfare benefits and state pensions.
Depending on the type of company you own and how remuneration is structured, employing a spouse for legitimate work in the business can allow for efficient income splitting and pension planning, reducing the overall tax burden and assisting with forward planning for retirement
Strategic timing of bonuses and other benefits, such as tax-exempt vouchers, can further optimise tax efficiency.
A well-thought-out remuneration structure not only reduces tax but also ensures long-term financial security.
Incentive Structures for Key Employees
Retaining and motivating management staff and key employees is critical for the successful day to day running of the company and for business continuity.
Many business owners struggle with structuring incentives in a way that aligns employee interests with long-term business goals.
We guide business owners in structuring the following:
• Pensions & benefits - helping to create attractive pension and benefits packages to retain your top talent.
• Performance bonuses - ensuring bonuses are tied to key business objectives.
• Shareholding - providing key employees with a stake in future business success where appropriate
Employee
Benefits
Strong employee benefits enhance staff retention and morale which in turn contributes to the longterm success of your business.
We advise business owners and directors on corporate pension schemes, income protection, and life assurance schemes along with other incentives that help to attract and retain talent.
