A professional group called the Exit Planning Exchange (XPX) held an inaugural Fairfield County meeting in Greenwich, with the aim of helping business owners plan for the eventual sale of their businesses.
The group”™s members include accountants, bankers, lawyers and other business advisers that are typically involved with wealth management or mergers and acquisitions.
Local sponsors include Withers Bergman L.L.P., a tax and estate planning firm with a Greenwich office, and the law firm of Wiggin & Dana L.L.P.
XPX”™s first chapter was in Boston, where recent meetings have focused on unlocking the intangible value of business assets, and an “owner”™s academy” covering other issues as a precursor to an acquisition.
Existing business groups also touch on the topic of mergers and acquisitions at their meetings. The Association for Corporate Growth meets regularly in Stamford with M&A issues at larger companies often the topic of panel discussions and the Connecticut Business & Industry Association schedules an annual conference for family owned businesses that focuses ample attention on whether to sell a business, among other events.
“We are a new and very different organization with roots in the Fairfield and Hartford counties,” said XPX organizer Joe Pucci, vice president of Bernstein Global Wealth Management in Westport. “We would like this event to acquaint more practitioners, related to exit planning, with what can be done to assist businesses who are planning exit strategies.”
XPX is planning monthly meetings alternating between early morning sessions and evening events, often featuring business speakers and freeing time for networking.
