Looking ahead to where your wealth can be and how to get it there?
Most business owners miss out on long-term opportunities to build both their company and personal wealth.
That’s not because they don’t want to reach their financial goals, limit taxes, or implement the strategies that grow their profits. It’s because they believe their CPA will do it for them.
Business owners and entrepreneurs share a common misconception that CPAs are doing something amiss when they don’t advise on short-term or long-term financial strategies.
“This is not part of a CPA’s job,” says Maximillian “Max” Morgan, financial planning and wealth management advisor at Lookahead Wealth and Lookahead Advisory. “Most CPAs don’t do tax strategy, or if they do, it’s an extra cost.”
Whereas for Max, financial planning and wealth growth strategy are his day at the office.
At Lookahead Advisory, Max is part of a comprehensive planning, accounting, and wealth management team that specializes in financial operations and strategy for businesses and for the people running them.
From his own background in finance and small business, Max understands that his mission for clients is to set up the right plans so they can move toward business exits, retirement, and other life phases with dignity, surety, and the confidence of executing a tailored strategy.
After building experience and gaining an understanding of what clients sought and needed in their personal and business financial planning, Max started his own investment design in 2016.
“Investment advisors needed help managing processes around how they manage money in turnkey asset management programs,” notes Max. “We served a lot of those clients in a more hands-on way. I bought out my partner around 2020 and took on private clients.”
After one financial advisor client passed away, Max brought that practice into his own in 2024, prior to bringing on another advisor and joining the Lookahead Advisory team.
Max and the Lookahead Advisory team work with many small business owners to mitigate financials not only at the top level in business, but at the personal level too. From organizations to families, Max draws on his experience and expertise to develop sophisticated investment strategies that he can communicate with care and clarity. At the same time, his collaborations with Lookahead’s CPA and accounting strategist augment his ability to develop sound wealth strategies for each client.
“There’s an overlap of the business planning and personal planning sides,” says Max. “Most of it comes down to blocking and tackling, things like budgeting. It’s not sexy, but it’s true.”
Over the years, he’s seen common signs that a business owner needs help with their financial and wealth-building strategies, whether that’s at work, at home, or both.
“If you don’t know your bills, it’s hard to save and plan for the future,” notes Max. “The first part we tackle is cash flow, budgeting, and forecasting. Most clients haven’t done that, so we do that heavy lifting for them.”
With basics of income, expenses, budgets, and initial forecasting established through his collaborations with Lookahead’s CPA and accounting strategist, Max can evolve planning recommendations by building longer-term, multi-point financial models and projections with greater accuracy. Through those, he can examine scenarios and discuss how his clients can secure financing, make informed business decisions, and stay on track toward their wealth and financial goals for their entity and themselves.
“We can aggregate data through secure software and build a model out of that info,” explains Max. “Once the budgeting is done, we find a surplus and we make it tax-efficient for retirement.”
Max addresses more key questions with clients, too.
“Are we using the right kind of accounts? The first step is often a client noting that they have gigantic tax bills. What can we do about that?”
Max regularly sits with clients to discuss their personal financial plan, their business’s finances, or both. He quickly finds they’ve often leaned on their CPA for a level of strategy that’s not part of an accountant’s blocking and tackling, but his.
“Do you do anything on deferred comp? What are you doing to mitigate taxes up front? What cash vehicles are you using?”
For client after client, Max sees the comprehension dawn as he begins asking questions like these
“An advisor who understands has an inside look at where you are and where you’re going in your business,” notes Max. “We have the opportunity to defer taxes, strategize exits, and set up the right company structure.”
Before Lookahead Advisory, Max worked in sales and service at various asset management and private equity firms.
“I fall into a weird space where I’m not an analyst, but I’ve been involved long enough that I can talk like an analyst.”
His own path has included Seattle’s Nine Point Capital Partners. In 2009, Max ran a small hedge fund, where he focused on asset management for 50 high-net-worth individuals.
“I also worked for a mutual fund outfit,” says Max. “We ran twelve mutual funds. When I left, we had over $2.5 billion under management.”
A CPA can set a solid foundation of accurate books, consistent tax filings, and reliable records, but they typically don’t help a business owner turn those numbers into a broader vision and financial planning. Max’s solutions and strategies don’t just come from his deep knowledge of the ins and outs of managing personal and business finances, though. His perspective from his own experience as a small business owner shapes his perspective and recommendations.
“Experience means a great deal, and we have businesses my wife and I own,” says Max.
Max sees his and Lookahead Advisory’s focus as helping clients not just get organized, but implement the strategies that move their profits and wealth forward
“For example, we might aim to help a small business grow from $2 million to $10 million in revenue.”
From management of accounts payable to how it’s best to pay staff, Max and the Lookahead Advisory team work with business owners on compensation plans, structure out what plans look like at specific intervals, and analyze the impact on a company’s profit and loss statements.
He’s also seen the power of that planning at work when growing his own business.
“As I went out to get financing and talk to banks, I had actual financials done for the month,” says Max. “I knew cash flow for three months and six months. I understood the variables under the hood and how we could make changes.”
Ultimately, Max sees his work as building financial models for individuals and for businesses that not only transform their understanding of their finances, but build toward the opportunities they seek in their business and personal goals.
“There’s a crossover between retirement planning and business planning,” explains Max. “Outside of asset management, they can come in to discuss the quarter, talk about where they want to go, such as buying a facility. Our models can show how an outcome might dictate what we’re going to do.”
From the owner’s aspirations to the real-world, on-the-ground data, Max can build that into the model, then show the effects to the client.
And that, of course, leads to more of Max’s insightful questions as he guides clients along their path.
“If you buy a house at $800,000 or $1.2 million, how does that affect things?” notes Max. “If you do a solo 401k, what does that do to your wealth today, as well as in six or ten years time?”
Building with the crossover of business and personal in mind is essential in showing a client a full picture of where things are and where they could be. Max can draw on his own real-world experience in small business, planning, and forecasting to do so.
“When I talk to business owners,” says Max, “I come from a place where we went from brand new to a healthy business with 20 staff, and strong revenue for what we’re doing.”
When business owners want to develop and implement a strategy that can grow their business and personal wealth, it all begins with the basics of bookkeeping and budgeting. Next is identifying what forecasting and tax strategies can look like.
“As the business grows, our team can discuss forecasting and financial strategy, but also tax strategy, shelters, and more,” says Max. “If we can help someone go, say, from $2 million to $10 million in revenue and help them through a meaningful exit, those are the meaningful clients we want to serve.”
From working inside equity and asset management to being a small business owner himself, Max knows firsthand the power of relying on others to build long-term growth. As part of Lookahead Advisory, he sees every strategy and management decision as integral to owners finding their way toward the business they want and the personal wealth they aim to build and benefit from.
Max has seen it with his clients, and he’s experienced it working on his own small businesses with the Lookahead team.
“If you want to build a business bigger than yourself, an outsourced executive team like Lookahead Advisory creates a ton of value on top of what you do,” says Max. “I don’t just know it. I’ve lived it.”
