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If you have just sold your company for $5 million or more, you are moving from operator to allocator, and the choices you make now will shape your long-term outcomes. A family office can deliver comprehensive, personalized oversight across investment strategy, tax planning, and estate coordination; however, it is not the only path for investors at this level. Multi-family offices and private wealth management engagements can provide comparable guidance with fewer fixed costs and less operational complexity.
Croak Capital helps entrepreneurs methodically weigh these options by examining control, customization, fees, privacy needs, and the level of coordination required. By mapping these considerations to your financial complexity, family circumstances, and long-term objectives, you’ll be able to select a structure that preserves and grows wealth while protecting your time and your family’s future.
What should I do immediately after selling my company for $5M+?
The transition from an illiquid operating asset to liquid investable capital requires deliberate sequencing. Your first priority is stabilization: confirm where funds are held, establish appropriate banking and custody relationships, and set clear signatory and cybersecurity protections.
The second priority is to clarify near-term cash uses — tax payments, reserve needs, and known obligations — so that investment decisions do not conflict with upcoming liquidity requirements.
The third priority is to define an investment policy that translates goals, constraints, and risk tolerance into a plan for deployment and ongoing management. Taking a measured approach during the first 60 to 120 days reduces the likelihood of errors and creates space for decisions that support long-term outcomes.
How do I manage the psychological shift from entrepreneur to investor?
Building a business rewards speed, improvisation, and concentrated risk; managing post-exit wealth rewards pacing, documentation, and diversification. It is normal for this shift to feel disorienting.
Establishing a personal definition of success, clarifying the role of wealth in your life, and introducing a review cadence can provide structure and reduce reactive decisions. If family members are involved, early conversations about expectations, privacy, and decision rights help align priorities and prevent confusion as you move from a founder’s mindset to a stewardship mindset.
Wealth management is about preserving and growing your wealth in alignment with your life goals. By engaging with professionals who can guide you through this transition, you’ll be able to make more confident, better-informed choices.
What are my immediate financial priorities after receiving exit proceeds?
After a liquidity event, three priorities deserve attention:
- Maintain a dedicated liquidity reserve that is sized to your spending and obligations, so market volatility does not force the sale of assets at unfavorable times.
- Build a tax plan that addresses current liabilities and positions you for multi-year efficiency rather than one-off savings.
- Design and document an investment approach that specifies allocation ranges, use of public and private assets, and the process for rebalancing and review. Managing these items in sequence creates a stable base for compounding.
Do I need a family office with $5M+ in assets?
Whether a family office is warranted depends on cost, complexity, and control preferences.
A single-family office concentrates oversight under your own entity and team but introduces meaningful fixed costs and management requirements. Multi-family offices offer shared infrastructure that reduces expense while still delivering coordinated advice.
Private wealth management engagements provide similar integration with less overhead, which can be appropriate when your situation does not require in-house staffing or bespoke administrative systems.
The right choice is the structure that meets your needs without introducing unnecessary friction.
What exactly is a family office, and how does it work?
A family office is a private wealth management firm dedicated exclusively to a single family (or multiple families). Its purpose is to manage your financial life comprehensively, from investments and taxes to estate planning and philanthropic initiatives.
A well-structured family office provides oversight, coordination, and continuity, helping you preserve and grow your wealth over time.
Single-family vs. multi-family offices: Which suits your needs?
Single-family offices provide maximum control and customization, with dedicated staff and systems tailored to your preferences, but they require meaningful capital and management attention.
Multi-family offices offer professional processes, institutional reporting, and access to specialized resources with lower fixed costs, though with less bespoke control.
Your decision should reflect how much customization you truly need, the level of governance you want to own, and the value you place on cost efficiency.
What are realistic minimums and costs?
Family office structures typically make economic sense at higher asset levels because staffing, systems, and administration create fixed costs that do not easily scale down.
Investors in the $5M to $25M range often find that multi-family offices or private wealth management engagements provide the required depth of advice and coordination without committing to a standalone operating entity. Understanding where your needs sit on that spectrum helps you allocate resources to strategy, rather than overhead.
How much does family office membership actually cost annually?
Costs vary depending on the family office structure and the level of service:
- Fees are usually 0.5% to 1.5% of assets under management.
- For $5 million in assets, that translates to $25,000 to $75,000 per year.
- Higher customization or single-family models can push costs even higher.
This cost-benefit calculation is crucial when deciding whether a traditional family office — or an alternative structure — makes sense for your situation.
What alternatives exist for $5 to 25M investors?
Many investors in this range prefer an advisory model that integrates investment management, tax coordination, and estate planning through one accountable team without replicating the infrastructure of a dedicated office. This approach supports comprehensive decision-making, maintains clarity on fees, and allows you to scale services as complexity grows.
Hybrid models that incorporate technology for reporting and organization can add efficiency while preserving human judgment where it matters.
How do I optimize taxes after selling my company?
Once your company has been sold, tax planning should be your next priority. The right strategies can reduce your immediate tax burden, protect your estate, and help ensure that wealth transfers smoothly across generations.
A disciplined approach addresses near-term liabilities and then sequences future decisions such as charitable gifts, trust funding, and the timing of gains and losses. Planning early creates flexibility to size positions, manage brackets, and integrate giving in a way that reflects your objectives without sacrificing optionality.
What immediate tax moves should I make after my company sale?
Selling your company often comes with a sizable tax bill, but there are strategies to reduce the impact. One of the most effective is charitable giving, which can lower your tax liability while supporting causes that matter to you.
Charitable strategies, such as donor-advised funds and private family foundations, can meaningfully reduce tax burden when coordinated with the sale timeline. Vehicles that allow you to separate the deduction decision from the ultimate grantmaking provide both planning flexibility and impact. Aligning these steps with your broader investment plan ensures that the pursuit of tax benefits complements, rather than dictates, your allocation choices.
How can charitable giving reduce my tax burden while creating impact?
Vehicles like donor-advised funds or charitable remainder trusts allow you to lower taxable income while directing resources toward meaningful initiatives.When implemented thoughtfully, philanthropy can serve as both a disciplined planning tool and a way to make a positive difference. Integrating charitable giving into your wealth plan can simultaneously support your family’s values while reducing immediate and future tax exposure.
How do I plan for estate taxes and generational wealth transfer?
While addressing immediate tax obligations is important, long-term estate planning is essential to preserve wealth across generations.
Long-term preservation depends on aligning documents, titling, and beneficiary elections with your intentions for control, protection, and distribution. Trust structures can create clarity for future decision-makers, provide guardrails for distributions, and reduce transfer taxes where appropriate. Regular reviews triggered by life events keep the plan current and ensure that administrative details match the legal framework.
What trust structures work best for multi-generational wealth preservation?
Trusts are central to effective wealth transfer, but the right structure depends on family dynamics, financial objectives, and long-term vision:
- Grantor trusts allow you to retain control while offering tax benefits.
- Dynasty trusts preserve assets within the family for multiple generations.
- Generation-skipping strategies can reduce estate taxes by directing wealth to grandchildren.
Working with a fiduciary wealth advisor can help you choose and implement the right structure so your estate plan supports both your family’s needs and your broader wealth strategy.
What’s the best investment strategy for my exit proceeds?
After addressing cash and taxes, the focus shifts to building a portfolio that balances growth, risk, and liquidity.
Public markets provide transparency and daily liquidity; private markets can complement those holdings when the liquidity profile aligns with your needs. A documented investment policy that defines role, size, and rebalancing thresholds reduces ad hoc decisions and supports consistent execution over time.
Some key considerations include diversification, tax efficiency, and thoughtful allocation to private markets. Taking a strategic approach here ensures your portfolio supports your long-term goals while minimizing unnecessary risk.
How do I diversify concentrated wealth without massive tax consequences?
Selling a business often leaves you with concentrated wealth in a single asset. The challenge is to diversify without triggering a large tax bill.Spreading investments across different asset classes can reduce risk and create a more resilient portfolio, but doing so effectively usually requires structured strategies and professional guidance.
Should I use exchange funds or other tax-deferred diversification tools?
Several tools can help you achieve diversification while deferring taxes:
- Exchange funds allow you to swap a concentrated asset for a diversified portfolio, reducing risk while deferring capital gains.
- Structured products provide tax-efficient diversification that can be tailored to your portfolio and risk profile.
- Completion portfolios fill gaps around your concentrated holdings to create a balanced investment mix that aligns with long-term objectives.
Working with experienced advisors ensures these strategies are implemented correctly and integrated into your overall wealth plan.
What role should private markets play in my investment portfolio?
Another consideration is how private markets fit into your portfolio. Private equity, private credit, and other alternatives can offer considerable returns. Because they’re not tied directly to public markets, they also provide diversification and potential protection during downturns.
That said, private investments come with added risks and limited liquidity. It’s critical to evaluate whether they align with your risk tolerance, time horizon, and financial goals.
A balanced approach that blends private and public investments can help you maximize returns while managing risk. Used intelligently, private markets can be a powerful addition to your post-exit portfolio.
How much cash should I keep, and how should I invest the rest?
You might be wondering how much cash to hold versus how much to put to work. For ultra-high-net-worth investors, this decision affects liquidity, flexibility, and long-term wealth preservation.
Determining how much to hold in cash is a function of spending, obligations, and risk tolerance. Maintaining a defined reserve creates stability and enables opportunity capture without relying on market timing. Deployment schedules — whether calendar-based or opportunity-based — help move capital into markets consistently while reducing the influence of short-term volatility on long-horizon goals.
What’s the optimal cash allocation strategy for ultra-high-net-worth investors?
Managing newly acquired wealth efficiently starts with thoughtfully allocating cash. Many ultra-high-net-worth individuals target 9 to 12% of their total assets in cash, balancing security with growth potential.
Here’s why this allocation works:
- Liquidity provides ready access to funds for emergencies or unexpected expenses, ensuring financial flexibility.
- Holding onto cash allows you to act quickly on attractive opportunities as they arise.
- Diversification integrates cash into your broader portfolio to reduce overall risk.
- Stability preserves value in volatile markets, offering a foundation for long-term wealth management.
How do I systematically invest large amounts without market timing risk?
Investing a large sum at once can feel risky, but structured strategies help manage market-timing concerns.
One approach is dollar-cost averaging, where you invest a fixed amount at regular intervals, reducing exposure to short-term swings. Another is opportunity-based deployment, committing capital strategically when attractive investments arise.
Maintaining a disciplined approach, paired with a cash reserve for unexpected needs, keeps your portfolio balanced, diversified, and positioned for long-term growth. The goal isn’t to predict market movements, but rather to structure your wealth so it can respond intelligently.
How do I protect my family’s security and privacy with new wealth?
Newfound wealth brings exciting opportunities, but also new responsibilities. Protecting your family’s security and privacy is essential if you aim to preserve your lifestyle, safeguard assets, and reduce exposure to potential risks.
Proper measures combine physical, digital, personal, and legal protections to create a holistic security strategy. Taking proactive steps now ensures your wealth is protected, and your family can enjoy the benefits without worrying.
What security measures should I implement to protect my family?
High-net-worth families face unique threats, from identity theft to unwanted attention. To protect yourself, you should:
- Install robust home security systems with surveillance cameras, alarms, and controlled access to protect against intrusions.
- Use strong encryption, secure passwords, and multi-factor authentication for all devices and accounts. Limit public exposure of sensitive personal information online.
- Engage vetted security professionals or personal bodyguards as needed, particularly for travel, public events, or high-profile appearances.
- Establish trusts, privacy-oriented legal entities, or other structures to shield assets and personal data from public disclosure or legal exposure.
Implementing these measures consistently builds a strong safety net, letting your family live confidently and securely.
How do I prepare my family and children for sudden wealth?
Sudden wealth can be overwhelming if family members aren’t prepared for its responsibilities. Education and structured guidance are critical.
Start by having open discussions about money, values, and financial expectations. Establish clear boundaries around spending, privacy, and lifestyle choices. Work with advisors to create age-appropriate financial education for children, teaching them about budgeting, philanthropy, and responsible investing.
Consider formalizing family governance through councils, meetings, or written agreements to define decision-making authority and processes. Encourage family members to participate in charitable initiatives to build perspective and purpose alongside wealth.
By preparing your family, you reduce the risk of conflict and ensure your wealth is managed thoughtfully for both security and future opportunities.
What mistakes should I avoid when managing my exit proceeds?
The most frequent errors after a liquidity event are concentrated risk that persists too long, unmanaged tax consequences, and decision-making driven by headlines or social pressure.
A written plan, a review calendar, and coordinated advisors create accountability so that strategy guides action. The goal is not to predict markets but to remove avoidable frictions and maintain progress toward clearly defined outcomes.
How do I avoid emotional investing and maintain financial discipline?
Emotions can easily drive financial missteps, especially after a liquidity event. Maintaining discipline is essential to protect and grow your wealth. Follow these four guiding principles:
- Avoid lifestyle inflation. Sudden wealth doesn’t have to mean sudden spending. Keep your expenses aligned with long-term goals rather than short-term impulses.
- Make sure you diversify. Spreading investments across different asset classes reduces risk and helps your portfolio weather market fluctuations. Diversification is a key component of long-term stability.
- Keep a long-term perspective. Market volatility is normal. Avoid making decisions based on short-term swings, and focus on strategies that support your overall objectives over years, not days.
- Work with professionals. Experienced advisors can provide perspective, help manage risk, and keep you focused on your long-term financial goals, reducing the influence of emotional decision-making.
What are the warning signs of poor wealth management advice?
Not all advisors are created equal. Some red flags include a lack of transparency, one-size-fits-all solutions, or an emphasis on products over your personal goals. Advisors who avoid clear communication or fail to explain their rationale may not prioritize your interests.
Recognizing these signs early can protect your wealth and ensure your money is managed according to your needs.
How do I choose the right wealth management team for my situation?
The right team can make a significant difference in preserving and growing your wealth. Look for advisors who:
- Have verified qualifications and a proven track record. Credentials and experience demonstrate reliability and expertise.
- Offer clear, understandable fee-only structures. Transparent fees prevent surprises and ensure you know exactly what you’re paying for.
- Follow a disciplined, fiduciary approach to risk management. They should actively manage portfolio risk and guide you through market fluctuations.
- Provide tailored strategies. Your financial situation is unique, and your advisors should create solutions specific to your goals, rather than offering generic or cookie-cutter advice.
What factors should determine my wealth management structure decision?
Here are the key points to consider when deciding whether to establish a family office:
- Assets: Having $5M or more often makes professional wealth management increasingly important. At this level, dedicated oversight can help protect and grow your wealth efficiently.
- Complexity: The more intricate your financial situation — such as multiple investments, businesses, or trusts — the sooner a family office may make sense to manage these moving parts effectively.
- Family dynamics: Differing financial perspectives or priorities among family members can complicate decision-making. A family office helps coordinate perspectives and streamline governance.
- Long-term goals: If preserving wealth for future generations is a priority, a structured approach can provide consistency, accountability, and continuity across generations.
Thinking through these factors carefully can help you determine whether now is the right time to establish a family office, or if a phased approach (or alternative advisory structure) better fits your situation.
Frequently asked questions:
Consider the degree of customization you need, the complexity of your finances, your tolerance for fixed costs, and the importance of centralized reporting and administration. Both models can deliver coordinated strategy; the better choice is the one that meets your needs with the least overhead.
Investors with complex assets, multiple business interests, or evolving family wealth may benefit from more customized solutions, while those seeking efficiency and professional oversight might prefer multi-family structures. At Croak Capital, we help clients assess these options, weighing the trade-offs, to ensure the chosen structure balances service, control, and cost while aligning with long-term objectives and your personal wealth strategy.
High-net-worth investors often struggle with how much cash to hold versus deploy. A disciplined approach balances liquidity for short-term needs with long-term growth. Maintaining enough cash to cover 12 to 24 months of planned expenses provides a buffer for emergencies, while allocating additional funds for investment opportunities ensures your wealth continues to work for you.
Cash allocation should consider risk tolerance, lifestyle goals, and upcoming financial obligations. By strategically structuring your cash, you can remain agile without jeopardizing growth. Croak Capital works with clients to develop tailored allocation strategies that protect liquidity, minimize market-timing risk, and support a sustainable growth plan aligned with both short-term needs and long-term objectives.
Charitable giving can reduce tax liability while supporting causes that matter to you. Tools like donor-advised funds and charitable remainder trusts allow you to structure giving in a tax-efficient manner while integrating seamlessly into your broader financial plan.
Beyond philanthropy, these vehicles can also complement estate and generational planning, aligning giving with family values and long-term objectives. Structured giving also provides flexibility to manage timing and impact. Croak Capital works with clients to design charitable strategies that maximize tax benefits, enhance legacy planning, and align with both personal and family philanthropic goals.
After a significant liquidity event, it’s easy to make emotional or rushed decisions. Common mistakes include overconcentration in a single asset, lifestyle inflation, chasing short-term returns, or working with advisors whose incentives don’t align with your goals.
Avoiding these pitfalls requires a disciplined, long-term approach that prioritizes diversification and professional oversight. Proper guidance helps maintain perspective, set achievable objectives, and implement strategies that protect wealth. A trusted advisory team can help you navigate decisions confidently, reducing risk and preserving capital for future growth.
If much of your wealth is tied up in a single stock, exchange funds allow you to diversify without triggering immediate capital gains taxes. By pooling shares with other investors, you can exchange concentrated holdings for a diversified portfolio, reducing exposure to company-specific risk.
Exchange funds work effectively alongside structured products and completion portfolios, offering tax-efficient diversification tailored to your broader financial strategy. Croak Capital guides clients through these options, ensuring alignment with liquidity needs, risk tolerance, and long-term portfolio objectives while helping mitigate the challenges of concentrated positions.
Private markets, including private equity, credit, and alternatives, provide diversification and potential for higher returns than traditional public markets. They also reduce correlation with equities, offering a buffer during market volatility and economic downturns.
These investments are typically illiquid and carry additional risk, so allocation should be sized carefully to your risk tolerance, liquidity requirements, and overall goals. Thoughtful integration allows private investments to complement public market holdings, enhance long-term growth, and provide unique opportunities. Croak Capital works with clients to determine appropriate allocations and ensure alignment with portfolio strategy, objectives, and risk profile.
A family office is most useful when your wealth, financial complexity, and family governance needs require dedicated oversight. Investors with $5M+ may benefit from advisory support, though full single-family offices usually make sense only at higher net worth levels due to cost and operational demands.
Multi-family offices or hybrid advisory models can provide many of the same services at a lower cost and with greater efficiency. Croak Capital helps clients evaluate the right timing and structure, balancing governance, investment strategy, and long-term planning without introducing unnecessary complexity. The goal is to establish a framework that grows with your wealth while meeting family objectives.
Preserving wealth across generations requires careful estate and trust planning. Vehicles like grantor trusts, dynasty trusts, and generation-skipping strategies can reduce taxes and ensure assets pass according to your intentions while providing control and flexibility.
The best approach considers family dynamics, asset types, and long-term goals. Coordinated strategies include ongoing monitoring and periodic adjustments to respond to changing circumstances, helping ensure your wealth is preserved, taxes are managed efficiently, and your family’s financial legacy is protected. Professional guidance ensures the plan is implemented correctly and remains aligned with evolving objectives.
Sudden wealth can tempt dramatic spending, which can quickly erode long-term security. Establishing clear budgets, disciplined allocation, and well-defined investment priorities is critical to maintaining financial stability and growth.
A structured plan allows you to fund lifestyle goals while keeping wealth secure and investments aligned with objectives. Croak Capital works with clients to develop frameworks that maintain liquidity, flexibility, and enjoyment without compromising long-term wealth preservation or intergenerational planning.
Selecting the right advisors is essential. Look for verified credentials, proven track records, transparent fee structures, and a disciplined approach to risk management. Most importantly, strategies should be personalized rather than generic, tailored to your unique circumstances and goals.
A strong team aligns recommendations with your objectives, risk tolerance, and family planning needs, providing oversight, accountability, and professional insight. Croak Capital works closely with clients to develop tailored strategies that preserve wealth, enhance growth, and accommodate evolving priorities over time, helping ensure both financial security and peace of mind.
Conclusion
Selling your company and having $5M+ to invest is a major milestone. A family office can provide personalized wealth management, but the right choice depends on your control preferences, investment goals, and tax strategies. Maintain a balanced cash reserve, diversify wisely, and avoid common pitfalls like emotional investing or lifestyle inflation.
Protecting your family’s financial security and privacy is just as important as growing your wealth. Whether you set up a family office now or later, the goal is to make the most of your exit proceeds and plan for the long term.
If you’re ready to explore your options and create a strategy tailored to your wealth, contact Croak Capital today to start the conversation.