Wealth planning built around your business.

Earlier than most owners do. The decisions that determine how much of the sale price you actually keep, including entity structure, asset versus stock sale treatment, installment arrangements, and Qualified Small Business Stock eligibility, generally need to be in place years before a transaction to have their full effect. By the time an offer is on the table, several of the most valuable planning windows have already closed. If you think a sale is somewhere on the horizon, even five or more years out, that is the right time to start.

We work with them. We are not a law firm or an accounting firm, and we do not try to be. Our role is to make sure the tax, legal, and investment pieces are built from the same set of facts, coordinating directly with your CPA and attorney so nothing falls through the gaps between them. If you already have professionals you trust, we work alongside them rather than around them.

We work with owners across a wide range, from sole proprietors and owner-only businesses through mid-market companies. The right fit has less to do with revenue than with complexity: if your personal and business finances are entangled, if you are weighing a plan design or entity decision, or if a transition of any kind is on the horizon, there is usually work worth doing.

It depends on your business profile, your income, and whether you have employees. Our plan selection guide walks through the decision. A Solo 401(k) offers the highest contribution limits for owner-only businesses. A SEP-IRA is simpler with no annual filing requirement. A SIMPLE IRA suits small businesses with a handful of employees. Defined benefit and cash balance plans can allow high-income owners to defer substantially more annually with a corresponding deduction. We evaluate the full landscape against your situation rather than defaulting to one structure.

Merels Capital is fee-only, which means our only compensation comes from fees our clients pay us directly. We earn no commissions, receive no third-party payments, and sell no proprietary products. Most relationships are structured as an annual advisory fee based on assets under management, but we also offer flat-fee planning engagements and hourly consultations where that fits the work better. All fees are disclosed in writing before any engagement begins.

Yes, though the range of available options narrows considerably at that stage. Some pre-sale structuring can no longer be undone once a deal is in motion. What remains valuable is planning for the proceeds: the tax consequences of the deal as structured, how the after-tax amount gets deployed, and what your financial picture looks like on the other side of the close. That post-transaction plan is often the piece nobody has thought through.

A broker or M&A advisor works on the transaction itself: finding a buyer, running the process, and negotiating terms. Our focus is everything surrounding it, including how the business and its ownership are positioned in the years before a sale, what the after-tax outcome looks like under different structures, and how the proceeds translate into a durable personal financial plan afterward. The two roles are complementary, and we coordinate with transaction professionals when a deal is underway.

No. Planning engagements and investment management are separate services. Some clients engage us for planning work alone, particularly around a specific decision such as plan design or exit positioning. Others want both coordinated under one roof. The right structure depends on what you actually need, and that is something worth discussing before any engagement begins.