MATTHEW HERTIG

Matt Hertig is the Founder and CEO of Owner Advisory Group and a Certified Exit Planning Advisor. He spent nearly twenty years building an analytics technology company that made the Inc. 5000 six times, then exited. Today he helps advisors bring structured wealth planning to business owners during the ownership years, not just at the transaction. He is the author of Owning Differently and the creator of the Owning Differently Platform. 

I spent almost twenty years building an analytics technology company. Then I sold it.

Here is what nobody tells you: a valuable business and a wealthy owner are not the same thing. The two can move in completely different directions for years.

As owners we focus on growth, the team, the client, and getting through the week. Meanwhile the business quietly becomes dependent on us. Decisions route through the owner. Accountability drifts. Systems live in people’s heads. Compensation, tax structure, retirement, insurance and personal planning get handled reactively, if at all — not from neglect, but because there is never time and never a clear picture.

What that produces is an owner whose net worth sits almost entirely in one illiquid position they cannot easily sell, priced eventually by a single buyer on a single date.

I call the distance between what the business is worth and what the owner actually controls outside it the Wealth Gap. Closing it is the work. And the years to close it are the years you still own the company — not the months you are trying to sell it.

That idea became a book, Owning Differently, and then the Owning Differently™ Platform — both built on a framework I developed called The PAID Architecture.

•     Protect — the business, the owner, and the value already built

•     Align — owner compensation, tax strategy, and how cash actually reaches the owner

•     Integrate — retirement and wealth built outside the business, during ownership

•     Distribute — succession, transition and legacy, planned rather than improvised

I work on this from both sides. Through Owner Advisory Group I work directly with owner-led businesses on strategic planning, owner advisory and fractional COO support — reducing founder dependency, sharpening execution and accountability, and preparing the company for what comes next.

As a CEPA, a financial advisor with Unity Financial Planning Group and a licensed insurance agent, I can also carry a plan through to implementation rather than hand it off: the retirement, protection and benefit strategies the plan calls for, put in place and coordinated with the client’s tax and legal advisors.

My passion is helping business owners achieve the wealth goals they desire during their ownership years and when they exit. 

Matt Hertig is the Founder and CEO of Owner Advisory Group and a Certified Exit Planning Advisor. He spent nearly twenty years building an analytics technology company that made the Inc. 5000 six times, then exited. Today he helps advisors bring structured wealth planning to business owners during the ownership years, not just at the transaction. He is the author of Owning Differently and the creator of the Owning Differently Platform. 

I spent almost twenty years building an analytics technology company. Then I sold it.

Here is what nobody tells you: a valuable business and a wealthy owner are not the same thing. The two can move in completely different directions for years.

As owners we focus on growth, the team, the client, and getting through the week. Meanwhile the business quietly becomes dependent on us. Decisions route through the owner. Accountability drifts. Systems live in people’s heads. Compensation, tax structure, retirement, insurance and personal planning get handled reactively, if at all — not from neglect, but because there is never time and never a clear picture.

What that produces is an owner whose net worth sits almost entirely in one illiquid position they cannot easily sell, priced eventually by a single buyer on a single date.

I call the distance between what the business is worth and what the owner actually controls outside it the Wealth Gap. Closing it is the work. And the years to close it are the years you still own the company — not the months you are trying to sell it.

That idea became a book, Owning Differently, and then the Owning Differently™ Platform — both built on a framework I developed called The PAID Architecture.

•     Protect — the business, the owner, and the value already built

•     Align — owner compensation, tax strategy, and how cash actually reaches the owner

•     Integrate — retirement and wealth built outside the business, during ownership

•     Distribute — succession, transition and legacy, planned rather than improvised

I work on this from both sides. Through Owner Advisory Group I work directly with owner-led businesses on strategic planning, owner advisory and fractional COO support — reducing founder dependency, sharpening execution and accountability, and preparing the company for what comes next.

As a CEPA, a financial advisor with Unity Financial Planning Group and a licensed insurance agent, I can also carry a plan through to implementation rather than hand it off: the retirement, protection and benefit strategies the plan calls for, put in place and coordinated with the client’s tax and legal advisors.

My passion is helping business owners achieve the wealth goals they desire during their ownership years and when they exit.