08 May 2026]
When Timothy talks about work, he does not just mean one business.
Timothy is in his early 40s and has spent more than a decade building companies. Over the past fifteen years he has built, bought and sold several ventures across courier services, vehicle rentals and accounting. Like many entrepreneurs, he thrives on the energy of building something from the ground up.
At home, life is just as busy. Timothy and his wife Juliana have five children, all living under one roof. With a large and growing family, long term financial security matters.
Juliana has also been part of the journey, helping behind the scenes and acting as a director in the latest business.
For years their long term financial plan felt fairly straightforward. Build the company, sell it and use the proceeds to fund their retirement.
It is a common strategy among business owners. But it is also one that carries more uncertainty than many people realise. When Timothy first spoke to Nehemiah Yeboah from Pinnacle, that assumption was gently challenged. One plan is rarely enough.
The single exit risk
Please note that advice with regard to exit strategy planning may involve the referral to a service that is separate and distinct to those offered by St. James’s Place.
Timothy had already experienced the reality that not every business exit delivers the same outcome. Some previous ventures had sold well. Others had delivered far less than expected.
And even when a business is performing strongly, the eventual sale price can depend on factors that are largely outside the owner’s control. Market conditions, buyer appetite, industry changes or the wider economy can all play a role.
Relying on one future event to fund retirement can feel like a lot of pressure for something that may still be many years away.
Rather than replacing Timothy’s ambition to sell his company one day, the conversation became about something different.
What if they created a second path to retirement alongside the business?
Starting from almost nothing
There was also the important conversation about the couple’s existing pension situation.
Despite more than ten years in business, their pension provision before advice was almost non-existent. Like many business owners, they had never fully appreciated the benefits of pensions or been shown how they could work as part of a broader financial strategy.
Most of their focus had quite naturally been growing the business.
Extracting profits more efficiently
Together Timothy and Nehemiah explored ways the business could begin setting aside money for the future in a tax efficient way while also improving how profits were extracted from the company.
Timothy and Juliana introduced modest employer pension contributions of £300 a month each through the business.
For limited company owners this can be a very efficient way to extract profits. Employer pension contributions are typically treated as a business expense, which can reduce corporation tax while building long term savings outside the company.
The aim was not to replace the eventual sale of the business. It was simply to ensure that it was not the only plan.
A second asset begins to grow
One of the realities for many entrepreneurs is that most of their wealth sits inside their business.
By gradually building pension savings alongside the company, Timothy and Juliana began creating a second financial asset that existed completely outside the business.
Over time this approach can reduce the risk of having too much tied up in one place. It also meant they could make use of both directors’ pension allowances, improving the overall efficiency of their planning.
Seeing the future more clearly
Then, there was the lightbulb moment when Nehemiah introduced financial modelling. Using Pinnacle’s LifePlan framework, Timothy and Juliana were able to explore what the future might look like under different scenarios.
- What if the business sold exactly as Timothy hoped?
- What if it took longer than expected?
- What difference might ongoing contributions make over the next twenty years?
Instead of guessing, they could begin to see how different choices might shape their future income. With this clearer picture, they saw their expected retirement age shift from around 65 to closer to 60.
The change in their planned retirement age is a result of the new retirement strategy: the regular pension contributions gently increasing over time and some lump sum payments that Nehemiah had identified to top up their pension pot.
A shift in mindset
For Timothy, the biggest change from taking financial advice was not purely financial. It was psychological. Before his work with Nehemiah, retirement had felt like something that depended on one big moment in the future, layered with uncertainty.
Soon the situation felt more structured and within their control. The business could still succeed and eventually be sold. That ambition had not changed. But now there was also a growing pool of savings quietly building alongside it.
When asked whether they would have implemented this strategy without advice, Timothy did not hesitate.
“No,” he admitted. “We were so focused on the business that we had not really thought about building a second retirement stream.”
Good financial planning is never just about products or investments. Often its real value is helping people to take stock, and realise their future is all about what they do right now.
For Timothy and Juliana, the goal was not to abandon their original plan. It was simply to make sure their future did not rely on one outcome alone.
By building a second route to retirement, they created something many entrepreneurs rarely give themselves. A degree of certainty.
The advice given to Timothy was provided after a full evaluation of their specific needs, circumstances and requirements. The solutions provided may not be suitable for everyone and the information provided here does not constitute advice.
Although this case study relates to a real-life example, where we have helped our clients by providing solutions to their financial problems, the names and figures have been changed for confidentiality purposes.
The value of an investment with St. James’s Place will be directly linked to the performance of the funds you select and the value can therefore go down as well as up. You may get back less than you invested.
The levels and bases of taxation, and reliefs from taxation, can change at any time. The value of any tax relief is dependent on individual circumstances.
SJP Approved 08/05/2026
