The Exit Planning Institute® (EPI) is proud to welcome Cornerstone Business Services, Inc. as the new title sponsor of the Exit Planning Summit.
Cornerstone, an investment bank with national reach, utilizes M&A expertise, market insights, and proven transaction strategies to equip advisors with the resources they need to guide owners through the largest financial transaction of their lives, the sale of their business.
This continued partnership brings together two organizations focused on helping advisors guide business owners toward more informed decisions and meaningful outcomes. This new initiative deepens the relationship between Cornerstone and EPI as they work toward their shared commitment to equipping trusted advisors to help business owners exit on their terms.
“It is a good fit for who we are. We wanted to partner with another best-in-class firm with similar national reach that really could help take that all to the next level,” Scott Bushkie, managing partner and founder of Cornerstone, says. “Our continued goal is to find other high-quality companies with like values and form a long-term, mutually beneficial partnership, and that's what we saw with EPI.”
Cornerstone’s mission is to create positive and life-changing events for the business owners its advisors serve. Scott sees a connection between that mission and EPI’s focus on helping business owners move from successful to significant.
For both EPI and Cornerstone, that work starts well before a business owner sells their business. By helping advisors begin exit-planning conversations as early as possible, advisors can give their business-owner clients the best chance of a successful exit.
Scott views advisor education as a way to extend that impact. Helping one owner can make a difference for one family, but equipping a trusted advisor can bring those conversations to business owners throughout an entire community.
The Exit Planning Summit brings that opportunity into focus, connecting Cornerstone with advisors who are actively investing in their development and seeking ways to serve their business owner clients better.
“The Exit Planning Summit is a world-class event, and the right people are there,” he says. “These are people who are willing to invest in themselves and their business; those are the people we want to be around because they're the ones taking this opportunity seriously.”
Scott will deliver the closing keynote at the 2027 Exit Planning Summit in San Diego on Tuesday, May 4, exploring how advisors can become a “magnet” for business owners vs chasing them like everyone else. He is also doing a 4-hour workshop just prior to the Exit Planning Summit for those advisors that want to dive deeper into capturing the assets under management (AUM) from business owners after the sale of their business.
Advisors will also have opportunities to ask members of the Cornerstone team, including Scott, about the third-party sale process and to explore how Cornerstone can support their advisory practices.
“We’re really going to try to make (the 2027 Exit Planning Summit) as intimate as possible for the people who want to meet with us and learn more about a third-party sale, key questions to ask your business owner clients, who needs to be on your deal team and how to build it, and most importantly how do you position yourself to retain the post-sale AUM,” Scott adds.
As the partnership between EPI and Cornerstone continues, Scott is most excited about how many families the organizations can help through their work with trusted advisors.
“The sheer number of families that will have a positive, life-changing experience because of Cornerstone and EPI,” Scott says. “It's not just hundreds, we're talking 10s of thousands of families. That's what gets me super excited because at the end of the day, why are we all here? To make a difference and change people’s lives for the better.”
That work begins by encouraging owners to start exit conversations sooner. This gives them time to understand their options and plan for life after the business, instead of waiting until they’re ready to sell to decide what comes next.
To learn more about the 2027 Exit Planning Summit in San Diego, click here.
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