Investment Planning: Retirement Glide Path
Explore smarter retirement planning beyond target date funds with a customized glide path built for your goals and risk tolerance.
Author: Brandon Jordan, CFP®, CHFC®, CEPA®, CVGA®, CLU®, MSA, EA | CEO of Impact Advisors Group
Is my balance sheet designed for growth—or for life? Does it matter?
Most successful business owners don’t feel like they’re being risky. After all, they’ve “bet on themselves”. Revenue is coming in, assets are growing, and net worth looks strong on paper. Yet, beneath the surface, many families are carrying a significant and often unrecognized risk—one that is very hard to quantify but is certainly IMPACTful. They often have concentration risk paired with a lack of liquidity.
We refer to this undesirable combo as The Bottleneck because it’s where everything can get stuck.
For many business owners, the majority of their net worth is often concentrated in just two places:
1. Their Business (70% – 80%)
2. Their Primary Residence (10% – 20%)
Both may be valuable. Both may be appreciating in value. But both share an important characteristic: they are illiquid. Even if the business value is high on paper, quickly converting that value to usable cash often requires one or more undesirable methods:
On paper, wealth may look substantial, but in real life, it can feel surprisingly constrained.
Concentration and illiquidity introduce several risks that tend to compound quietly:
1. Your financial future is tied to a narrow set of outcomes.
When most wealth depends on one business, one market, or one asset class, a single disruption—economic, regulatory, operational, or health-related—can have an outsized impact on the family’s experience and outcome.
2. Illiquid wealth often limits good decision-making.
Owners often feel pressure to stay in a business longer than they want, delay strategic changes, and accept the financial stress of being illiquid as “part of the deal.” Additionally, being illiquid often inhibits the ability to say “yes” to other valuable opportunities. An otherwise successful person may have to say “no” to things they should say “yes” to and say “yes” to things they should say “no” to.
Liquidity creates options. Lack of liquidity creates dependence.
3. Timing risk is unavoidable.
Even great businesses can be hard to exit when markets tighten. When capital is trapped, families can be forced to make decisions based on timing or external factors rather than wisdom.
4. Spousal stress often rises quietly.
This is one of the most overlooked issues. When a family’s financial security is tied almost entirely to the health, stamina, and ongoing success of one person and one enterprise, it can create anxiety—especially for spouses who feel the weight of their future being tied to something that feels entirely out of the control and their ability to influence.
Systematically moving wealth from the business balance sheet to the personal balance sheet isn’t a reflection that we think the money would grow faster outside of the business. Rather, it’s an example of financial prudence.
Here’s what it allows families to do:
1. Reduce dependence on a single outcome.
Personal liquidity creates diversification—not just of assets, but of life options. Does having the future financial well-being of the family tied to a single future event align with the level of flexibility and security you want?
2. Increase peace of mind at home.
When families know there are resources available independent of the business, stress often decreases. Decisions feel less urgent. Conversations become calmer. Confidence increases.
3. Say yes more often—to the right things.
Liquidity enables family experiences without hesitation, strategic opportunities when they arise, generosity when it matters, and flexibility during seasons of transition.
This is where wealth begins to serve the family—not the other way around.
4. Build optionality, not just net worth.
Optionality means the ability to slow down, the freedom to pivot, and the choice to exit—or not—on your own terms. This type of wealth (a.k.a. financial freedom) is rarely created in one moment. It’s built systematically over time.
The goal isn’t merely to accumulate assets—it’s to design a life with greater margin, flexibility, and shared confidence.
Families with adequate liquidity tend to experience:
If your wealth is largely locked inside your business, it may be time to step back and reflect on a bigger question: “Is my balance sheet designed for growth—or for life?”
To help answer this, we’ve developed a self-assessment tool that may help you discern if you are at risk of experiencing The Bottleneck.
If this topic resonates or if your self-assessment suggests an opportunity for improvement, let’s have a conversation. Sometimes a small shift in how wealth flows can create a disproportionate improvement in clarity, confidence, and family well-being.
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