Johns Creek, GA & North Fulton
Liquidity Event Planning in Johns Creek, GA
For most of a Johns Creek owner’s career, the money is illiquid. It sits in the practice, in the company, in a building on Johns Creek Parkway, in restricted shares at a medical device employer that cannot be sold yet. Then a single event converts a large part of it to cash, usually in one tax year, and every habit built over twenty years of reinvesting stops applying.
Cinder Wealth is based in Cumming, a short drive north of Johns Creek up Peachtree Parkway, and works with Johns Creek and North Fulton owners, physicians, and executives in the months on either side of that event. Matt Losanno’s work is the set of decisions that determine what the family actually ends up with: the true after-tax figure, the steps that only count if they are finished before signing, how the proceeds get invested once they arrive, and how much has to be set aside and left alone. Cinder does not prepare returns or draft legal documents. Matt builds the plan and brings the CPA and the attorney in around it.
The Johns Creek Liquidity Picture
Twenty years of building, converted to cash in a single filing year.
Johns Creek concentrates the events that create sudden liquidity. Private equity groups have been buying specialty medical and dental practices around Emory Johns Creek Hospital for years, paying part in cash and part in platform equity. Alcon and Boston Scientific put restricted stock and options in the hands of executives who live along Old Alabama Road and Abbotts Bridge Road. Commercial parcels along McGinnis Ferry Road are changing hands as the $560 million Medley development takes shape on the former State Farm campus. And families who arrived a generation ago are now passing property and businesses to children who grew up here.
Each of those events lands in one tax year, and each one arrives with a deadline attached. What can still be done depends on whether the agreement is signed, whether the shares have vested, and whether the estate documents were updated before the transfer rather than after.
$629,400
Median home value in Johns Creek, 2020 through 2024, U.S. Census Bureau
10,525
Johns Creek households with income of $200,000 or more, U.S. Census Bureau
$560M
Medley, the 43-acre mixed-use development on the former State Farm campus
Local
Cinder Wealth is based in Cumming and works with households across North Fulton
Who Matt Works With
Johns Creek households with a large, one-time event on the calendar
Cinder Wealth works with owners, physicians, executives, and families whose liquidity event is large relative to everything else they own. The work is most valuable when it starts before the agreement is binding, though a great deal can still be done for a household that has already closed and is holding the proceeds in cash.
The common thread is a single year that changes the household’s tax picture, its investment risk, and its estate plan at the same time.
Physicians and Dentists Selling to a Platform
Practice owners receiving cash plus rollover equity from a private equity or management services group, who need to know what the cash portion leaves after tax and how much of the household now depends on a platform they do not control.
Executives With Vesting Equity
Leaders at Alcon, Boston Scientific, and other public employers in the area holding restricted stock units and options that vest on a schedule, where one company already drives most of the household’s investment risk.
Owners Selling a Company or a Location
Founders of technology, services, and franchise businesses selling the whole company or a group of units, often with a seller note or an earnout that keeps part of the price uncertain for years.
Families Selling Real Estate
Households selling a commercial parcel, a rental portfolio, or a long-held family property along the McGinnis Ferry or Medlock Bridge corridors, where the gain, the basis, and the reinvestment question all arrive together.
Families Receiving an Inheritance
First- and second-generation families receiving property, accounts, or a business interest from a parent, sometimes with assets in more than one country and reporting requirements that a CPA has to handle correctly.
Liquidity Planning Areas
What Matt works through with Johns Creek households
Before the Event
The Steps That Only Count If They Come First
A gift of company shares, a transfer to a charitable vehicle, a change of entity, or the funding of a trust generally has to be complete before there is a binding agreement, and for some of them the safer margin is months earlier. Matt lays out which of those apply, how long each takes, and when the last responsible date falls, so the CPA and the estate attorney are not being asked to do a month’s work in a week.
The Real Number
What Actually Reaches the Family
Between the price on the term sheet and the balance in the account sit advisory fees, escrow, a working capital true-up, Georgia and federal tax, and whatever is deferred or contingent. Matt builds the household plan on the amount that is certain, which is often meaningfully smaller than the number the owner has been carrying around.
Rollover Equity
The Part of the Price That Is Not Cash
A practice or platform deal that pays thirty percent of the price in shares of the acquirer leaves the seller with a concentrated, illiquid position in a company they no longer control. Matt sizes the household plan around the cash and treats the rollover as what it is. All investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal.
Equity Mechanics
Options, RSUs, and When to Exercise
An incentive stock option, a non-qualified option, and a restricted stock unit each carry a different tax treatment, and the order and timing of exercising and selling changes the cash required, the alternative minimum tax picture, and the holding period. Matt works out what each path does to the household. The CPA confirms the treatment before anything is exercised.
Real Estate Proceeds
Gains, Basis, and What Comes Next
Selling a building, a parcel, or a rental portfolio raises questions that are separate from the business: the basis, depreciation recapture, whether a like-kind exchange is worth the constraints, and how the proceeds fit the household’s income plan. Matt runs the versions. The CPA and attorney confirm the treatment and the deadlines.
Charitable Timing
Giving Before the Sale Rather Than After
A household that gives every year is usually better off contributing appreciated shares or a slice of the company before the deal than writing checks afterward, and a donor-advised fund lets the deduction land in the high-income year while the grants go out over time. None of that works once the agreement is binding. The CPA confirms the treatment.
The Income Plan
Turning a Balance Into a Paycheck
A large cash balance is not a plan. Matt builds the withdrawal approach, the reserve for the next few years of spending, and the allocation for the rest, so the family knows what the money produces annually rather than only what it totals.
Estate and Family
Trusts, Beneficiaries, and What Transfers
A liquidity event usually moves a family into estate planning territory it was not in before. Beneficiary designations, account titling, and trust structures all need to match the new picture, and families with relatives or property abroad have an extra layer of reporting. Cinder does not draft legal documents. Matt works with the estate attorney so the financial plan reflects what they put in place.
Why Timing Decides the Result
Almost every good option expires at signing
Few areas of planning punish delay as sharply. The same move made a quarter earlier can change the result by a material amount, and made a quarter later can be worth nothing at all.
Once it is binding, it is mostly settled
Charitable transfers, gifts of company interests, and several entity moves have to happen before a binding agreement to be respected. After that point the planning conversation becomes about what to do with the proceeds rather than how large they are.
A single year carries a dozen decisions
The sale year pushes the household through brackets it has never seen, past Medicare premium thresholds, into large estimated payments, and sometimes into questions about which state gets to tax what. Taking each of those as it surfaces costs more than sequencing them together beforehand.
Concentration does not end at the closing table
Rollover equity, an earnout, a restricted position, or a building leased back to the buyer keeps the household exposed to one company after the sale. That exposure should be a deliberate choice with a size attached to it, not a leftover from the deal structure.
Write the plan before the wire arrives
The month after a large deposit is the worst possible time to decide what to do with it. The allocation, the reserve, and the spending rules should already be on paper, agreed to while the household could still think clearly about them.
Based in Cumming
A local advisor for Johns Creek households before and after the event
Cinder Wealth Advisors is based in Cumming, a short drive north of Johns Creek up Peachtree Parkway, and serves owners, physicians, and executives across Johns Creek, Alpharetta, Duluth, Suwanee, and the rest of North Fulton. Matt Losanno started the firm after seeing how often a family’s CPA, attorney, and investment professional were each doing good work in isolation, with nobody accountable for the whole.
A liquidity event is where that isolation costs the most. Matt builds the household model, lists what has to be finished before the transaction closes, and makes sure the people responsible for the tax filings and the legal documents have what they need in time. The first conversation is usually about what is coming and how many months are left before it does.
Cinder Wealth is a fee-based advisory firm. Advisors may earn commissions on some insurance products.
Common Questions
Liquidity event questions from Johns Creek households
Straight answers about what counts, how early to start, and what Cinder does with the proceeds once they arrive.
What counts as a liquidity event for a Johns Creek household?
Any single transaction that converts a large illiquid asset into cash or marketable securities: the sale of a practice or company, a private equity recapitalization, a large block of vesting equity, the sale of a building or rental portfolio, or an inheritance. The common feature is one year that changes the household’s taxes, investment risk, and estate plan at the same time.
How early should I start planning?
Before the agreement is binding, and ideally a year or more before. Charitable transfers, gifts of company interests, and entity changes have to be complete before signing to be respected. Planning after the close is still worthwhile, but it is about what to do with the proceeds rather than how large they are.
My practice sale pays part of the price in rollover equity. How should I treat it?
As an investment in a company you do not control, with liquidity that depends on a future sale of the platform. Matt builds the household plan around the cash that is certain and treats the rollover as upside. That framing usually clarifies how hard to negotiate on the cash portion and how the new employment contract fits.
I already closed and the money is sitting in cash. Is it too late?
No. The pre-signing opportunities have passed, but the income plan, the reserve, the allocation, the estimated payments for the year of sale, and the estate updates are all still ahead. Sitting in cash for a long time has a cost of its own, and so does investing all of it quickly without a written plan.
Should I sell my company stock all at once or over time?
It depends on the size of the position relative to everything else, the tax cost of selling, trading windows and insider rules if you are still employed, and what the household needs the money to do. Matt builds the schedule with those constraints in view. The CPA confirms the tax treatment. All investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal.
How do I handle charitable giving around a sale?
Households that already give often do better contributing appreciated shares or an interest in the company before the sale rather than cash afterward, and a donor-advised fund can separate the deduction from the timing of the grants. Both depend on acting before the agreement is binding. The CPA confirms the treatment.
We are selling a building and a business in the same year. Does that change anything?
Yes. Two gains in one filing year interact with brackets, Medicare premium thresholds, estimated payments, and depreciation recapture on the property. Whether to close both in the same year, lease the building to the buyer instead, or consider a like-kind exchange are decisions worth modeling together before either agreement is signed.
Do you take custody of the proceeds?
Investment advisory services are offered through Csenge Advisory Group, LLC, a registered investment advisor, and assets are held at a third-party custodian. Cinder Wealth Advisors is not affiliated with Csenge Advisory Group, LLC. Matt will explain the arrangement and how he is compensated before anything is implemented.
Talk to Matt
Plan the event before it is already decided
If a sale, a vesting date, a property closing, or an inheritance is on the horizon for your Johns Creek household, start with a conversation about what is coming and how much time is left before it does.
Related Pages
The information presented on this page is for educational purposes only and does not constitute personalized financial, tax, or legal advice, or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Cinder Wealth is not a licensed tax professional. All strategies discussed should be evaluated with your own CPA, attorney, and qualified financial advisor before implementation. All investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal. Investment Advisory Services are offered through Csenge Advisory Group, LLC, a registered investment advisor. Cinder Wealth Advisors is not affiliated with Csenge Advisory Group, LLC.
