Life stages / Business Owners
Building a business and building personal wealth are not the same thing.
Most SME owners are asset-rich and planning-poor. The business absorbs everything. Meanwhile, pension contributions are inconsistent, protection is underweight, and the exit plan does not yet exist. We bring the personal and business picture together.
When your finances and your business are tangled together.
Most generic financial advice treats personal and business finances as separate worlds. For SME owners and directors, that is rarely how life works. The decisions you make about how to draw income, when to invest, how to fund retirement, and how eventually to step away all sit in the overlap.
Get that overlap right and you build personal wealth efficiently while keeping the business resilient. Get it wrong, or leave it unmanaged, and tax leakage, missed reliefs and unprotected positions accumulate quietly over years.
The big questions
The big financial questions for business owners.
- What is the most tax-efficient way to extract money from my company?
- Am I building enough personal wealth alongside the business?
- What happens to my business, and my family, if I die or cannot work?
- How do I structure an exit to minimise tax and maximise what I keep?
- How does the Finance Act 2026 change my pension and IHT planning?
- How do I make sure my business and personal plan are joined up?
Where we focus
Where we focus for business owners.
Six areas where good advice pays for itself.
Pension and remuneration strategy
How best to combine salary, dividends and employer pension contributions, accounting for corporation tax, personal tax, the annual allowance and carry-forward. Employer contributions attract full corporation tax relief and sit outside the personal allowance calculation.
Exit and succession planning
Whether you are selling, passing the business to family, or stepping back gradually, the planning around an exit is best started years in advance. Business Asset Disposal Relief, sale structuring, and the post-exit investment plan all sit here.
Director and key person protection
What happens to the business if a key director cannot work, becomes seriously ill, or dies? Key person cover, shareholder protection and cross-option agreements close gaps that often go unnoticed until they matter.
Tax-efficient retirement funding
Director-focused pension structures including SSAS and SIPP, employer contributions, and how the pension can interact with company assets. A SSAS can hold commercial property used by the business, benefiting both company and your retirement.
Business Relief and inheritance tax
The Finance Act 2026 capped Business Property Relief at £1 million of qualifying assets, with 50% relief above that threshold. For owners with significant business interests, this changes the inheritance tax conversation materially.
Family and legacy planning
How the business passes, when, and to whom are decisions worth making deliberately. We work alongside your solicitor and accountant to align your personal estate plan and business succession plan.
The sequence
The business owner's financial journey.
Most business owners move through a broadly predictable financial sequence. Where you are in that sequence shapes what we focus on first.
Protect your income
Income protection, life cover and critical illness while the business depends on you personally.
Protect the business
Key person cover, shareholder protection and cross-option agreements.
Build pension wealth
Consistent employer contributions, carry-forward, SSAS or SIPP structures.
Invest surplus profits
Tax-efficient extraction and investment of profits that sit beyond business need.
Plan the exit
BADR structuring, sale preparation, pre-exit pension maximisation.
Retirement and legacy
Post-exit investment, income planning, inheritance tax and estate strategy.
The 2026/2027 changes
The Finance Act 2026 changed the planning picture for business owners.
Two significant changes came in under the Finance Act 2026. First, Business Property Relief was capped at £1 million of qualifying assets from April 2026, with a 50% rate applying above that threshold rather than the previous 100% relief. For owners whose business interests exceed this threshold, the inheritance tax exposure on their estate has increased materially.
Second, from April 2027, unspent pension funds will be subject to inheritance tax at 40% for the first time. For business owners who have been making large pension contributions as a tax-efficient strategy, this changes how the pension should sit within the broader estate plan.
The interaction between these two changes, business interests, pension wealth and the overall estate, requires careful modelling. The options available before April 2027 are broader than those that will exist after it.
Common questions
Questions we hear most often.
How should a company director extract profits tax-efficiently?
The most efficient approach for most directors is a low salary up to the National Insurance secondary threshold, dividends to the higher-rate threshold, and employer pension contributions paid directly from the company. Employer contributions attract full corporation tax relief and bypass the personal annual allowance.
What financial planning should I do before selling my business?
Exit planning is best started three to five years before a planned sale. Key areas include maximising Business Asset Disposal Relief eligibility, reviewing pension contributions to extract value before sale, structuring the transaction to minimise capital gains tax, and planning how to deploy the proceeds.
How does the Finance Act 2026 affect business owners specifically?
Business Property Relief was capped at £1 million of qualifying assets from April 2026, with 50% relief above that threshold. And from April 2027, unspent pension funds will be subject to inheritance tax at 40%. Both affect how business interests and pension wealth should be structured.
Do I need key person insurance?
If your business's revenue, banking covenants or supply relationships depend materially on one or two individuals, key person cover is worth considering. It pays a lump sum to the company on the death or serious illness of a key individual.
The first conversation is free
Talk to an adviser who understands business owners.
A first conversation with Aetas Wealth costs nothing and commits you to nothing. We will look at your situation honestly and tell you what we think.
Book a free consultation →The value of investments and any income from them can fall as well as rise. You may get back less than you originally invested. Past performance is not a reliable guide to future performance. The levels and bases of taxation may also change.