The family business, and everything it holds

A lifetime of work deserves to be handled by people who have done this themselves.

Afissio helps families value, organize, and sell a legacy business and all of its real estate, before, during, and after retirement. One boutique team of corporate, real estate, and technology experts, working for the family and paid on the result.

Confidential. No obligation. We will tell you honestly whether now is the right time.

A family business is never just the business. It is the buildings, the land, the holdings, and the people. We treat the whole of it as one thing, and we get it right.

52%
of U.S. business owners are 55 or older, and most plan to exit within the decade.
80–90%
of an owner's net worth is typically locked inside the business and its property.
~5%
of owners exiting actually complete a sale. Most simply close their doors.
~$5T
in business value will change hands over the next ten years.

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau Annual Business Survey; McKinsey Institute for Economic Mobility, The Great Ownership Transfer (2026); Exit Planning Institute. The "~5%" reflects that of all small and mid-sized businesses leaving the market in 2022, about 92% closed and only 5% sold (McKinsey, Census BDS).

What we handle

The business and the whole real estate estate, not just the building it sits on.

Most firms sell the company and leave the property as an afterthought, and they only look at the building the business occupies. A family that has owned a business for decades almost always owns more: the operating premises, yes, but also investment property, land, second sites, and holdings with development or repositioning upside. We handle all of it, as one coordinated plan.

01

Every holding, valued properly

A business is valued on its earnings. Each property is valued on its own terms. We map the entire portfolio, the operating real estate and everything else the family holds, and price each piece for what it is actually worth.

02

We work for the family

Our job is the number the family keeps, not getting any deal done. We are transparent about every fee, and we credit your retainer against our success fee, so you never pay twice for the same work.

03

A platform that does the heavy lifting

We built the technology to search far past any one person's contacts for the right buyers, to show what each decision is worth before you make it, and to back every number with its source. Better outcomes, faster, with nothing hidden.

The real estate

Real estate is usually the most undervalued part of the estate.

When property is folded into a business sale at one earnings multiple, it gets buried in the number. Valued and sold on its own terms, to buyers who value real estate, the same holdings can be worth considerably more. With development and entitlement experience on the team, we also see value others miss: a site that can be repositioned, subdivided, leased back, or developed rather than simply sold.

We value every property separately, decide with the family what to sell, hold, lease back, or develop, and take each to the buyers who pay the most for it.

Illustrative example

One estate, two ways to handle it

Business and all property sold together, at one business multiple$8.0M
Business sold on earnings; each property valued and placed on its own terms$9.6M

Illustrative figures for explanation only. Real results depend on the business, the properties, and the market. Not an appraisal, valuation, or offer.

Who we help

Families, and the people who stand beside them.

A transition like this rarely involves only the owner. We work with the family directly, and alongside the professionals who carry part of the weight.

Owners & families

Before, during, and after

Whether retirement is years off or already here, we help you understand what you have, prepare it well, and sell it on your terms. The work does not start the day you list and does not end the day you close.

Wealth managers & advisors

Be on the deal team

Your business-owner clients hold most of their wealth outside your portfolio, until they sell. We help you serve them through that moment without becoming an M&A firm, and hand the client back with proceeds to manage.

Executors & attorneys

When it falls to you

When a business and its holdings pass to an estate, the executor and counsel inherit a hard, time-pressured job. We bring order, valuation, and a path to sale, so you can settle the estate properly and fairly.

How it works

A clear path from first conversation to close.

One accountable team runs the whole transition, the business and every property, and keeps the family at the center of each decision.

1

Map and value

An honest, source-backed picture of the business and a separate valuation of every real estate holding. Not a flattering number to win your business.

2

Organize and prepare

We bring order to the financials and the property records, clean up the things that quietly discount value, and fix what matters before anyone sees the company.

3

Position

A confidential, accurate package that presents the business and the holdings well, ready to put in front of the right buyers.

4

Find buyers

A wide, technology-assisted search across strategic buyers, private equity, search funds, and real estate investors, substantiated by real relationships, not a vanity number.

5

Run the process

Competitive bidding, diligence, and negotiation, with each property run on its own track and counsel coordinated throughout.

6

Close and hand off

We structure the deal, get to close, and return the proceeds to the family and, if they wish, to their wealth manager, with the next conversation already teed up.

Our team

Built by people who have lived this, not watched it.

Afissio is a boutique team of values-driven experts who have sat on the hard side of these transitions ourselves. We saw how slow, opaque, and costly they are for families, and we built a better way: easier, faster, and more profitable, with the family's interest first.

Corporate law

Jerry Smith

Decades inside the legal machinery of buying, selling, and structuring closely held businesses. The judgment that keeps a deal sound and a family protected. (Bio to be finalized.)

Real estate development

Erik Gillberg

Thirty-plus years representing owners on complex properties, with the development eye to see what land and buildings can become, not just what they list for. (Bio to be finalized.)

Technology

The platform

The technology layer that lets a small expert team do the work of a much larger one: wider buyer searches, source-backed valuation, and order brought to a messy estate. (Lead to be named.)

Our fees

Paid mostly when you are.

We work on a modest retainer plus points, the standard structure for serious advisory, set up to keep us aligned with the family. We do not charge the large non-refundable upfront fee that gives parts of this industry a bad name.

A modest work fee

A small, transparent retainer covers the real work of mapping the estate, valuation, and preparation, the parts that have to happen well before any buyer appears.

Credited in full against the success fee at closing.

Points on the result

A success fee, expressed in points (one point is one percent), on the total proceeds, the business and all of the real estate together. It scales with the size of the transaction.

Most of what we earn depends on the number the family keeps.

Start a private conversation

Tell us a little, in confidence.

No obligation, and nothing shared. We will give you an honest read on whether now is the right time and what the business and its holdings might be worth.

Confidential and without obligation. Submitting this is not a commitment to sell or to engage Afissio.