Organization of the business manager’s assets

Your assets are not limited to your personal assets.

Why the manager's assets require a specific approach

The interweaving of professional assets and private assets

For the majority of SME managers, the company represents between 60 and 80% of total assets.

This overlap goes further than simple valuation.

The risks of unstructured wealth management

The consequences of a lack of structure are rarely visible during the growth phase.

These scenarios are not exceptions: they constitute the most frequent cases encountered by specialist wealth advisors.

Key points: Identify now the three main exposures of your assets — legal (deposits, matrimonial regime), fiscal (concentration of securities, absence of capitalization vehicles) and social (insufficient foresight).

Asset diagnosis: the essential starting point

Audit of the legal, fiscal and social situation

Before any strategy, an exhaustive inventory is necessary.

This audit systematically reveals inconsistencies: a manager with 41% of TMI who places his savings in an A booklet rather than funding a PER, a company generating surpluses without a holding company to capitalize, a collaborating spouse without his own pension coverage.

Mapping of professional and personal assets

The mapping distinguishes liquid assets (bank savings, financial investments), semi-liquid assets (SCPI shares, life insurance contracts), illiquid assets (company securities, real estate), and liabilities (professional and personal bank debt, guarantee commitments).

This mapping makes it possible to measure the real imbalance between professional assets and private assets, and to objectivize the need for diversification.

Definition of short, medium and long term heritage objectives

The objectives of a 38-year-old leader in the growth phase differ radically from those of a 55-year-old leader preparing to exit.

Key points: A serious diagnosis takes between two and four weeks, involves collecting your tax notices, balance sheets for the last three years, insurance contracts, marriage certificate and company statutes.

Optimize the manager’s remuneration and taxation

Arbitration of remuneration vs. dividends

This is the most recurrent arbitration - and most often poorly posed.

For a president of an SAS assimilated as an employee, dividends are subject to the PFU of 30% (12.8% IR + 17.2% social security contributions) — i.e. €30,000 of tax on €100,000 of dividends.

A concrete example: a TNS manager with 45% TMI paying €30,000 into a PER reduces his tax base by €30,000, i.e. a tax saving of around €13,500.

Social status of the manager and financial impacts

The choice between TNS (SARL majority manager, individual entrepreneur at the IS) and equivalent employee (SAS president, minority manager) is not just a question of charges.

Leverage of employee savings and supplementary retirement

Employee savings remain underused in VSE-SMEs.

Key points: Model your optimal compensation mix each year with your accountant and your CGP.

Protecting the assets of the business manager

Choice of matrimonial regime and its property consequences

The matrimonial regime is the most powerful — and most neglected — protective device.

Separation of property offers clearer protection but deprives your spouse of any participation in the enrichment of the business.

Separation and compartmentalization of assets

Two structures make it possible to partition professional assets and private assets: the SCI and the holding company.

These structures are not abusive optimization schemes: they are part of prudent management of entrepreneurial risk, recognized and regulated by law.

Executive pension plan: death, disability, key man guarantees

Foresight is the poor relation of the manager's wealth strategy.

Three levels of coverage are to be structured: personal insurance (Madelin contract for TNS, collective contract for equivalent employees) covering the maintenance of income in the event of sick leave, disability and death;

Key points: Check the level of your pension guarantees every year.

Develop and diversify assets outside the company

Professional and private real estate: crossed strategies

Real estate is often the manager's first instinct for diversification — and it deserves careful structuring.

For private investment property, holding via SCI at IS allows the property to be depreciated (reducing taxable income), to reinvest net surpluses in new acquisitions, and to gradually transfer the shares by donation.

Financial investments and asset allocation adapted to the manager profile

Your financial allocation must compensate for the concentration and illiquidity of your professional assets.

Private equity deserves particular attention: accessible directly for large tickets or via FCPR/FPCI funds, it allows investment in other companies with advantageous taxation (exemption from capital gains subject to holding period conditions) and partial decorrelation from listed markets.

Asset holding: capitalization and reinvestment tool

The holding company is the central vehicle of the manager's asset strategy once the company reaches a significant level of profitability.

Compared to a direct distribution to the individual associate (PFU 30% + 4% CEHR if applicable), the capitalization gain is substantial.

Key points: The holding company is not relevant for all managers.

Prepare the transfer of the business and assets

Anticipating the sale: valuation and Dutreil pact

Preparing for a transfer or family transfer must begin three to five years before the deadline.

For a family transfer, the Dutreil pact (article 787 B of the CGI) is the central mechanism: it makes it possible to obtain a 75% reduction on the value of the securities transferred, subject to the conditions of collective commitment to retain the securities (two years minimum) and individual commitment of the donee (four years).

For an external transfer, the prior contribution of the securities to a holding company before the sale (article 150-0 B ter) allows the taxation of the capital gain to be deferred.

Donation-sharing and dismemberment of property

The sharing donation is preferable to the simple donation to organize the devolution between several children: it freezes the values ​​on the day of the donation (avoiding subsequent inheritance relationships) and can significantly reduce the rights by mobilizing the available reductions.

Dismemberment of ownership — transfer of bare ownership of securities or real estate while retaining usufruct — is a powerful complementary tool.

Reuse of sale proceeds: post-transmission strategies

The sale generates an exceptional liquidity event — often the most important in the manager's life.

The retirement allowance (article 150-0 D ter) offers a fixed reduction of €500,000 on taxable capital gains for managers transferring within the twenty-four months following their effective retirement.

Key points: Any significant transfer (beyond €500,000 of capital gain) justifies a dedicated asset audit six months before signing.

Implement global heritage support

Key stakeholders and their complementarity

A managerial wealth strategy requires at least four coordinated stakeholders.

The added value of the independent CGP lies precisely in this function of transversal conductor: it has a vision which goes beyond each professional specialty and ensures that the decisions taken at one level (fiscal, legal, social) do not create unanticipated side effects.

Frequency of review of the heritage strategy

A heritage strategy is not a fixed document.

Annual reviews also make it possible to mobilize schemes with annual ceilings (PER, employee savings) before they are lost, and to adapt the strategy to legislative developments – a permanent risk in a tax environment as fluid as French property law.

Key points: The right question is not “can I afford support?”

A serious heritage diagnosis takes two to four weeks and does not prejudge a commitment.