What If Your Biggest Financial Risk Isn't in the Stock Market?
By Brian Wheeler, Director of Wealth Management & Business Brokerage
Every time the market becomes a little more volatile, my phone starts ringing:
“Brian, should we be making any changes?”
Your Largest Asset May Be the One You Know the Least About
It’s a fair question, and sometimes the answer is yes. But I’ve noticed something over the years.
When people think about financial risk, they almost always start with the stock market. We worry about interest rates, inflation, taxes, elections, tariffs, and whatever headline happens to be leading the news that week. Those things certainly matter, but I’ve often found that the biggest financial risks aren’t the ones making headlines.
For many business owners, the largest asset they’ll ever own isn’t sitting in a brokerage account. It’s the business they’ve spent years, sometimes decades, building. Yet it’s amazing how little time that asset actually receives compared to everything else.
Think about it. Most investors know exactly what their portfolio was worth yesterday. They can tell you whether it was up or down, sometimes to the penny. But ask the same business owner what their company is worth today, and the answer is often, “I’m not really sure.”
I’ve always found that interesting.
It’s not because they don’t care. It’s because they’re busy running the business. Customers need attention. Employees have questions. Vendors need answers. The business demands today’s attention, while planning quietly waits for tomorrow. Before long, another year has passed without asking some of the questions that could have the biggest impact on their financial future.
Questions like:
- If someone approached you tomorrow with an offer to buy your business, how would you know if it was fair?
- If your retirement depends on the value of that business, is it becoming more valuable each year, or just keeping you busy?
- If something unexpected happened to you, would your family know what the business is worth or what comes next?
The Value of Asking: “What Happens If”
One of the things I’ve come to appreciate is that the most valuable planning conversations usually begin with four simple words:
What happens if…?
What happens if you’re ready to slow down sooner than you expected? What happens if your children decide they don’t want the business? What happens if your largest customer leaves? What happens if your management team isn’t ready to operate without you?
Most owners don’t spend much time thinking about those questions because they aren’t urgent today. But neither was estate planning before someone passed away. Neither was succession planning before retirement was on the calendar. Neither was tax planning before December 31st arrived.
The most important planning decisions rarely feel urgent until they are.
That’s one of the reasons I encourage business owners to understand the value of their company long before they’re thinking about selling it. A valuation isn’t simply about putting a price tag on a business. It’s a way of understanding what’s creating value, what’s holding it back, and where there may be opportunities to improve.
Sometimes owners discover their business is worth more than they expected. Sometimes they discover there are a few areas that deserve attention. Either way, they gain something that’s difficult to put a price on: clarity. And clarity creates options.
Final Thoughts
The market will continue to do what markets have always done. It will rise, fall, and give us something new to talk about next month. But your business doesn’t receive a new price every afternoon. That doesn’t make it less important. If anything, it makes it easier to ignore.
So let me leave you with one question:
When was the last time you evaluated the asset that’s likely worth more than everything else you own?
Not because you’re planning to sell. Simply because you deserve to know.