Your Business Makes Money.
Is It Making You Wealthy?
You built the company. You make payroll. You reinvest everything. But when your spouse asks "are we going to be okay?" — can you answer honestly?
Investment advisory services through Kestra Advisory Services, LLC. Past performance is not indicative of future results. All investments involve risk, including the potential loss of principal.
*Approximate client count as of January 2026. Includes current and former advisory clients. †McCune Whiteley advisors act as fiduciaries only when providing investment advisory services through Kestra Advisory Services, LLC (Kestra AS). Brokerage services are offered through Kestra Investment Services, LLC (Kestra IS), member FINRA/SIPC, and are not fiduciary in nature.
Where Are You Right Now?
Every business owner's situation is different. Find yours.
The Five Problems Nobody Is Solving for You
Each one quietly erodes your wealth. Click any section to see the detail.
Stories From the Other Side of the Desk
These clients are entirely fictional. The situations they face are common planning questions for business owners.
David
COMPENSATION — HYPOTHETICAL
A structure set up years earlier — and never revisited since.
THE SETUP
David owns a plumbing company in Fort Worth. Revenue: $1.2M. For eight years, he paid himself a $250K W-2 salary and took zero distributions.
THE TURNING POINT
In a first planning conversation with a wealth advisor, David and his CPA worked together to review the salary-versus-distribution split against current IRS reasonable-compensation guidance, paired with retirement plan design.
THE TAKEAWAY
Under one illustrative set of assumptions, a restructured approach could have meaningfully reduced FICA/payroll tax and freed up contribution capacity for retirement savings. The specific figures depend on state, age, industry, reasonable-compensation analysis, and plan eligibility.
*David is entirely fictional and not based on any specific client. Actual tax and planning outcomes depend on entity type, income, state, reasonable-compensation analysis, and individual circumstances. Illustrative only.*
Your CPA files taxes. Who's building the plan?
Your CPA or Tax Accountant
Tax preparation and compliance
- Files and reviews tax returns
- Advises on deductions and tax liability
- Tracks business financials
- Provides audit support
- Looks backward — what happened last year
A CPA's primary role is accurate tax reporting — not building a wealth plan, modeling retirement income, or advising on exit structure.
A Fiduciary Wealth Advisor†
Forward-looking wealth planning
- Builds a comprehensive wealth plan
- Designs retirement income strategy
- Proactive tax-aware planning coordinated with your CPA
- Models exit scenarios and post-sale wealth
- Manages investments around your goals
A fiduciary advisor, when acting in an advisory capacity, is legally required to act in your interest — not a product manufacturer's.
Fort Worth advisors who work with business owners every day.
Cory McCune
Co-Founder & Senior Advisor
Cory works with Fort Worth business owners who are building personal wealth while running their companies. From compensation structure to retirement plan design to eventual exit strategy — he helps owners make financial decisions that work for the business AND the family.
Bret Whiteley
Co-Founder & Senior Advisor
Bret focuses on the tax and risk side of business owner planning — helping owners structure how they pay themselves, protecting against key person events, and coordinating with CPAs and attorneys to make sure every professional is working from the same plan.
What a Business Owner Engagement Covers
Every engagement is tailored — this is the default scope, not a fixed menu. Click any card for detail.
01
Compensation Structure Review
Identify where your salary/distribution split may be inefficient.
02
Retirement Plan Design
Evaluate whether a layered plan design fits your situation.
03
Personal Balance Sheet Build-Out
Build wealth outside the business over 10 years.
04
Risk & Protection Audit
Review key-person, disability, buy-sell, and liability gaps.
05
Tax-Aware Coordination
Proactive tax planning coordinated with your CPA.
06
Exit-Readiness Framework
Value Gap analysis and exit-timeline worksheet.
For the Spouse Who Doesn't Run the Business
If your partner runs the business and you don't have full visibility into the finances — you're not alone. In most business-owner families, one person lives inside the numbers every day and the other knows the broad strokes but not the details.
Here's what matters: How much of your family's retirement depends on a successful business sale? What happens if the sale doesn't happen — or happens for less than expected? What does your family's financial life look like if your partner can't work for six months?
These aren't questions to ask during a crisis. They're questions to answer together, now, while there's time to plan.
The 15-minute call isn't just for the business owner. It's often more valuable when both partners are on the line.
Common Questions
"We're not thinking about selling yet."
Neither are most of the owners we work with — exit planning is chapter 7, not chapter 1. Compensation, plan design, and risk protection are chapters 1–4.
"My CPA handles our finances."
Your CPA is essential — we coordinate with them, not replace them. (See the CPA vs. Fiduciary breakdown above.)
"Our situation is complicated."
That's exactly why this call exists. We work with business owners across manufacturing, professional services, construction, healthcare, and tech — each one with a different set of complications. Fifteen minutes to understand yours and tell you honestly whether there are gaps worth addressing. If there aren't, we'll tell you that too.
"How is this different from what my insurance agent offers?"
Your insurance agent focuses on coverage — life, disability, property, liability. Important, but coverage isn't a plan. We coordinate the insurance with your investments, your retirement funding, your tax strategy, and your exit timeline so each piece reinforces the others instead of operating in a silo.
15 Minutes to Understand Your Biggest Blind Spots
Talk directly with one of our advisors. They'll review your situation, answer your questions, and give you an honest assessment — even if that means you're already on track.
Firm established 2009. Client count and years of service as of January 2026. *Approximate count; includes current and former advisory clients.