The Long View
Exploring how ownership transitions shape people, communities, and what comes next.
Are You Buying a Business or Inheriting Its Debt?
Over the next decade, more than six million baby boomer-owned small businesses will face ownership transitions. Up to five trillion dollars in enterprise value is in motion. The opportunity is real.
So is the debt.
On a recent episode of Ethical Exits, Up & Over Advisors founder Hannah Sandmeyer sat down with Maura Shenker of AllHold Capital, who works at the intersection of economic mobility and ownership design. Maura offered a distinction that every aspiring buyer needs to hear before they sign anything.
"There is no great wealth transfer," she said. "It's a debt transfer."
Understanding why that may be true, and what to do about it, is what this post is about.
The Case for Community Ownership: What Happens When Main Street Businesses Change Hands
Baby Boomers own millions of small businesses across America. Over the next decade, an enormous wave of these businesses will change ownership as their founders retire. Who buys them will determine whether wealth stays local or leaves, whether jobs are protected or eliminated, and whether communities thrive or hollow out. The question isn't whether Main Street businesses will change hands, but who will own them next, and what that will mean for the communities they serve.