Business Owners

Fitting your life’s work into your life’s wealth

Your business. It’s your greatest accomplishment – and it’s likely your greatest asset. Does your wealth plan reflect that?

Business owners are in a unique position when it comes to wealth. You are the master of your professional destiny and your financial future, and all of the responsibility – for operations, for planning, for succession – that comes with it.

In 2025, Raymond James asked people like you – those who’ve dedicated blood, sweat and years to building a sizable business – how they’re approaching their livelihoods, their futures and the places where the two intersect.

Our survey of business owners found that, when it comes to wealth planning, the stakes are high:

Nearly half
of business owners have more than 50% of their personal wealth tied to their businesses.

Less than 25%
51–75%
26–50%
More than 75%

What percentage of your personal wealth
is tied to your business?

The survey also found that a new Great Wealth Transfer is underway for business owners:

In the next 5 years, 56% expect to transition/exit their financial stake

In the next 10 years, 88% expect to transition/exit their financial stake

Having a plan that connects your business and your personal goals will shape the future of your wealth.

Comprehensive financial planning is a good idea for everyone, but it’s especially important for business owners. It’s likely you’re in or approaching a significant transition, and having a tailored plan could help you complete it successfully and set up the pursuit of future goals – whether that includes launching a new business or creating generational wealth.

With so much of their lives tied to an enterprise, business owners need strategies that dig deep, connecting:

  • Income and estate tax mitigation
  • Estate planning
  • Risk mitigation
  • Investment objectives
  • Liquidity planning – sources of short- and long-term personal cash flow
  • Business sale or succession
  • Intergenerational wealth transfer

Take a closer look at how business owners are planning for their futures.

Read the 2025 Business Owners Report.

The next step(s)

Retirement might seem like the logical conclusion of ownership, but our survey found that even owners who are already envisioning an exit don’t see it as an ending. While 20% of respondents do plan to retire, 63% were eager to keep working or pursue new ventures after relinquishing part or all of their financial stake in a business:

Meeting, planning and people with laptop, boardroom and discussion.
16% Will focus on philanthropy
20% Will retire
30% Will invest in/buy another business
33% Will keep working at their current business

Business owners most likely to …

Retire
Baby boomers

0%

Invest in another business
Generation X

0%

Primarily engage in philanthropy
Millennials

0%
Businesswoman looking over architecture blueprints

And the successor is …

Family

35% of owners plan to pass the torch to a relative, an option that makes clear communication critical.

Nonfamily internal stakeholder

23% want someone who knows the business to carry it forward, which typically entails staying in growth mode to keep candidates engaged in the business’s future.

External party

23% of owners plan to look for outside opportunities, an approach often suited to working backward from future plans to deal structure.

No one

18% will stay as long as they and the business are operational.

What’s your plan?

Considering the ways your life and business intersect could play a key role in helping you make the most of both. Whatever your personal goals, your professional goals and your goals for the future of the people you care about most, reaching them starts with a plan. A financial advisor can help you build a wealth plan that reflects the value of your greatest asset and all of the possibilities it represents.

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