FROM AFTER-TAKEOFF TO AFTER-LANDING: AN INSURANCE PRE-FLIGHT CHECKLIST FOR THE 4 CAPITALS AGAINST THE 5 DS
In the Value Acceleration Methodology, Prepare begins with De-Risk. The 5 Ds — Death, Disability, Divorce, Distress, Disagreement — attack the 4 Capitals every owner is building. Insurance is the only tool that protects the Capitals before risk materializes, yet most exit plans treat it as an afterthought.
Kerry Pulliam, a life insurance planning specialist and active aviator, shares a discipline borrowed from the cockpit: a phased pre-flight checklist for the De-Risk step. The framework follows four phases of flight: After Takeoff (audit what's in force), Cruise (protect operating value), Before Landing (de-risk the descent toward exit), and After Landing (post-conversion family wealth).
Across each phase, Kerry walks through three checklist items the CEPA can apply directly, anchored with anonymized case examples. Attendees leave with a one-page Pre-Flight De-Risk Checklist for their next Discover or Prepare conversation.
Learning Objectives:
- Map the 5 Ds to the 4 Capitals and identify which insurance instruments protect which Capital against which D.
- Apply a four-phase Pre-Flight Checklist (After Takeoff / Cruise / Before Landing / After Landing) to any client engagement, recognizing where in the Discover-Prepare-Decide methodology each check belongs.
- Diagnose common gaps in existing client coverage — drafted-but-unfunded buy-sells, mispriced underwriting classes, missing key-person protection, governance and ownership-structure misalignment.
- Coordinate an insurance specialist into the broader exit-planning team — including identifying the right moment in the engagement to bring one in, what diagnostic information to surface first, and how insurance integrates with the estate planner, CPA, and M&A advisor.
Event Details
Who Should Attend?
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Attorneys
You have close relationships with clients, and can benefit from being the first advisor to introduce the idea of exit planning.
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CPAs/Accountants
Owners participating in the State of Owner Readiness research continue to indicate that you are the No. 1 "Most Trusted Advisor." You are a natural fit to lead the exit planning team and deepen your relationship (and retention) of next generation owners.
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Wealth Managers
You’re a skilled relationship person. Being entangled into your clients’ professional lives matters as you build a strategy to manage their wealth upon them harvesting it from their business. Exit planning allows you to build a deeper relationship with your client, expands your COI network, while giving you an early seat at table well before the liquidity event.
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Financial Advisors
One of the critical ‘legs of the stool’ is personal financing planning. An owner must have a strong financial plan & contingency plan post-transition to enable them to thrive in the next act of the lives personally and financially. Exit planning brings this future mindset into the present. Exit is now.
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Investment Bankers
Only 2 of every 10 businesses that come to market actually sell. Learn how exit planning can bring attractive AND ready business to your purview.
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Valuation Analysts
Valuation is both a billable engagement AND an opportunity to provide owners some perspective on how to accelerate value drivers (and deal with value killers). Use exit planning to make that valuation into a longer term value acceleration engagement.
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Estate Planners
Exit planning is a natural fit for estate planners who want to operate more holistically with their owner clients.
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Strategic Consultants
One of the most critical roles in exit planning is building transferable value. Strategic consultants have the ability to expand options and drive rapid business value that affect performance today.
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Insurance Professionals
Exit planning addresses the 5 D's. So do you. Approach the risk conversation differently with exit planning.
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Mergers & Acquisition Advisors
Proper exit planning causes less deals to fall through at the last minute. Connect with CEPAs to build your healthy deal flow network.
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Commercial Lenders
One of the best relationships a business owner makes is with their banker. How can you help your corporate clients think about the future and ensure financial continuity? Answer: exit planning.
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Family Business Advisors
More than 50% of lower middle market business owners would prefer to transition to the next generation. Help them succeed with exit planning strategies.
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Other Professional Advisors
Regardless of your unique specialty, there is seat at the exit planning table for you. Learn more at www.EarnCEPA.com.
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Private Business Owners
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Members of Family Business Boards
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Professional Advisors
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Business Consultants
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Other Business Professionals
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Business Owners
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Business Owners & Their Trusted Advisors
EXIT PLANNING IS GOOD BUSINESS STRATEGY
The Exit Planning Institute, provides Financial Advisors, Accountants, Consultants, and other advisors of business owners with the critical education to differentiate themselves and add value to their existing client relationships through a credential, conference, courses, and content. Download the CEPA brochure for more information.
ABOUT THE PRESENTER
Kerry Pulliam is a nationally top-ranked resource for business/exit planning teams helping implement proprietary ideas and concepts to protect business, personal and family wealth. As a Certified Financial Planner and Certified Exit Planning Advisor with over 25 years of high-end financial planning experience, Mr. Pulliam has collaborated with some of the most highly recognized Advisory and Wealth Management Teams across the United States.
His ability to cover the simple to the complex and to explain the complex simply has been instrumental in developing long term relationships with these advisors while also successfully implementing sophisticated strategies to protect business, personal and family wealth for some of the top business owners and family offices globally. Mr. Pulliam is a frequent keynote speaker and has conducted numerous seminars and continuing education courses for clients, professional advisors and financial institutions.