I meet a lot of business owners in their fifties with the same quiet worry. The business is worth a lot. Everything they own is tied up in it. And they have no clear idea what life looks like on the day they walk out the door.

It isn’t a knowledge problem. These are capable people. It’s a time problem. The business always comes first, the family second, and their own balance sheet a distant third. As business owners ourselves, we know exactly how that happens.

The business-owner wealth gap

Research by LGT Wealth Management and Investment Trends in 2025 found about 760,000 Australians now hold more than $1 million in investable assets, but only around a quarter use professional advice, and more than half say they lack guidance on tax and estate structures. Business owners are heavily represented in that gap: wealthy on paper, under-advised in practice.

A sale is a single day. Being ready for it takes three to five years.

Why tax concessions alone don’t make you sale-ready

The small business CGT concessions can be extraordinarily valuable. The 15-year exemption, the 50% active asset reduction, the retirement exemption and the rollover can, in the right circumstances, reduce the tax on a sale dramatically and move a large amount into super. But each has conditions about ownership, active assets, turnover or net assets, and timing. Many owners discover too late that how their business is held, or a passive asset sitting in the wrong entity, rules them out.

And even a perfectly tax-effective sale leaves the bigger questions unanswered. How much do you actually need? What will you do with the proceeds? Which structures should hold them? What happens to the family members who work in the business?

Seven signs you’re further from ready than you think

• More than half your net worth is the business itself.
• You don’t know what the business would sell for, or what drives that number.
• Revenue depends heavily on you personally.
• Business premises, cash or investments sit in the same entity as the trading business.
• You and your business partners have no current buy-sell agreement or insurance behind it.
• Your will and your trust deed haven’t been reviewed since the business got big.
• You can’t say what number you need to stop working.

What we do about it

We start with the number: what you need for the life you want after the business. Then we work backwards with your accountant, structuring for the concessions, building wealth outside the business year by year, and planning what happens to the proceeds before a buyer appears. When the sale comes, it’s a step in a plan rather than the plan itself.

Source: LGT Wealth Management and Investment Trends, State of Wealth (November 2025). General information only. Eligibility for the small business CGT concessions depends on your circumstances; get advice from a registered tax agent. It does not take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs.