ENGAGEMENT OVERVIEW AND PROPOSAL
PERSONAL AND CONFIDENTIAL

FROM: Bill Black, Certified Exit Planner
President, Exit & Retirement Strategies, Inc.

This letter describes our process of preparing your Business Owner Road Map & Strategy Playbook, a comprehensive written strategy for accomplishing your objectives. In order to begin the creation of your plan, we will need to receive your signature below and the initial engagement fee retainer.


An Overview of the Process

I use a systematic, organized process to manage the design and implementation of the tools that best meet your unique goals. The following is an overview of my client representation process:

Data Collection. We will request data from you to develop the initial draft of the plan. I will help you to prioritize competing objectives and understand how certain strategies and exit paths may (or may not) allow you to achieve your objectives.

Strategy and Design. After our Data Collection meeting, I will develop a preliminary Road Map, which will serve as a central location to organize and present important facts about you and your business, your objectives and recommended strategies to achieve your goals.

Preliminary Plan Presentation. In this meeting, I will walk you through your preliminary Road Map / Strategy Playbook to confirm basic facts, revisit and solidify your objectives and carry all of that information through to one or more Recommendations that will be included in your plan.

Questions & Clarification Meeting: Most business owners modify this first draft as they see how their objectives and their unique circumstances interact and affect their potential options. After this initial presentation and revision we will invite all members of the Advisor Team to participate to receive their comments and to agree on changes to the Recommendations for which each of them is responsible, so that a final plan can be created.

Your Road Map & Strategy Playbook will include an "Action Item Checklist" – a comprehensive "to do" list that I will manage and maintain for you and the Advisor Team that you select. The Action Item Checklist tracks tasks necessary to complete each Component of your planp, the person responsible for each task and the date by which the responsible person has committed to complete the task. This Checklist will be an effective tool for measuring your progress through the process and holding your Advisor Team accountable for that progress.

Final Plan Presentation. Once you have reviewed the preliminary draft of your Road Map, we will schedule a meeting with you and any constituents or stakeholders in the process to present the elements of the Road Map that affect them and to seek their comments and approval of the strategies we have identified and recommended. It is important to obtain the support and enthusiasm about your strategies from this group to avoid obstacles in the implementation phase. There is no need to implement a technique that will be resisted by someone close to you or that will create problems in other areas. That is why we pause here to make sure that all who have influence on your decisions and implementation are on board.

Implementation. Finally, we monitor the implementation of the Recommendations described.
Your Advisor Team

Working with you during this process will be your Advisor Team: your accounting and legal advisors, your financial and insurance advisors as well as any other professionals you deem appropriate. It is important (and efficient) that we work together as a team to meet your objectives. The Advisor Team members are selected and retained by you, which is appropriate because you will invest a significant amount of trust and time with these professionals. It is important that you feel comfortable with them. I will work with the Advisor Team that you choose. If you need referrals for any Advisor Team members during this process I am happy to provide them.


Length of the Process

The length of the process as described here depends upon your availability and that of each member of your Advisor Team. Generally, it takes 4 to 12 weeks from the date of the first Data Collection meeting to the date of the first Implementation of a Recommendation.

Scope of Work and Fees

The Overview of the tasks for the creation of your Business Owner Road Map, leading the Advisor Team and implementation of the Recommendations contained in your Road Map are as follows:


INTAKE AND ANALYSIS
i. Data intake and organization.
ii. Collection of current legal and financial documents for review.
iii. Discussion and creation of written Owner objectives.
iv. May include Business Valuation Estimate & Retirement Capital Needs analysis.

MEETINGS AND PREPARATION

  1. Intake and discussion meetings to discuss facts and objectives. These meetings set the tone of the planning meetings as we clarify and identify goals, objectives and needs. 
  2. Explain and discuss selected strategies, Revise as necessary.
  3. Clarify and fine-tune the Road Map
  4. Consensus meetings to present the plan and field questions and suggestions from your advisor team to further fine-tune the plan based on their input.

IMPLEMENTATION:

  1. Coordination of Implementation by Advisor Team
  2. Follow-up on status of Recommendations that have been implemented and implementation of Recommendations that are scheduled for future implementation
  3. Update reports as necessary to update status of assigned tasks.

PROFESSIONAL FEES: Our fee for the above work is $250 per hour. Work is not to exceed 10 hours in any 1 month period without prior written notice and approval. The fees described above do not include fees associated with your engagement with other members of the Advisor Team, with whom you are working directly and independently of this engagement.

Getting started

Your signature of the signed signature page below and an initial fee retainer made payable to “Exit & Retirement Strategies, Inc.” is all that is necessary to get the process started. Following receipt of those items an implementation call will be scheduled.

I am honored to have the opportunity to work with you and to assist you in this critical process to help you achieve your objectives. I look forward to learning more about your business in the context of working through the design and implementation of your Road Map.

If I may answer any questions, please call me at (866) 370-3774.

Sincerely,

/s/William T Black

Bill Black
President and Certified Exit Planner
Exit & Retirement Strategies, Inc.

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* 1. I have reviewed the attached Engagement Letter and by typing my name and title below I indicate that I agree to and accept it’s terms:

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* 2. Date of your agreement

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