The wealth gap is the difference between what a business and personal assets are worth today and the amount needed to achieve financial independence, the number that exit planning exists to close.

Most business owners assume the business will be enough. The wealth gap calculation tests that assumption with specific numbers. It projects the after-tax proceeds of the business at its current and likely future value, adds personal savings and other assets, and compares that total to the capital required to sustain the owner’s lifestyle, fund the intended legacy, and absorb the risks of a long post-exit life.

The gap that calculation reveals is almost always different from what was expected, sometimes more comfortable, more often larger. When it is larger, the options are clear: build more value into the business, reduce lifestyle expectations, extend the timeline, or save more personally in the years before exit. Identifying the gap early enough to act on it is the entire point. Discovering it after the sale closes, when the options have run out, is what exit planning exists to prevent.

The wealth gap is a number, and knowing it changes everything about how exit planning gets done. See how Wefinx approaches exit planning.

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