Succession planning platform Capitaliz names North America president

Jared Johnson joins the exit planning-focused fintech as business owners and financial advisers face a continuity crisis.

Capitaliz – a platform specializing in digital solutions for business valuation, succession, and exit planning for independent entrepreneurs and advisors – has appointed a new president for North America.

Jared Johnson, who joined Capitaliz after leading the Business Enterprise Institute, will oversee the firm’s operations and strategy in the region, focusing on business development and enhancing client success through advisory relationships.

“Jared’s appointment is a key part of our strategy to strengthen our position in the Americas,” Craig West, Capitaliz’s founder and chairman, said in a statement.

With a background in exit and succession planning, Johnson’s tenure at BEI saw him expand resources for advisors, broaden the institute’s membership, and champion the importance of exit planning as a discipline. His professional career also includes strategic roles at Convergys, Citibank, and AOL.

Johnson’s hiring occurs as a concerning number of independent entrepreneurs find themselves in a race against time. In a January presentation to the Senate, Exit Planning Institute president Scott Snider relayed a raft of alarming statistics from the National State of Owner Readiness Survey, which found 50 percent of business owners had no plan whatsoever for their inevitable exit.

The survey also revealed a three-fifths majority of business owners (60 percent) did not understand their exit options, while 80 percent had no formal exit strategy in place, contributing to a substantial number of companies either not selling or being forced to exit as a result of external conditions.

That urgency for succession planning is also mirrored among the advisor community, with a recent Cerulli research report estimating that 38 percent of the financial advisors in the US – representing 42 percent of assets – would retire within the next 10 years. Meanwhile, the pipeline for new blood coming to the industry is looking comparatively weak, as the industry’s “rookie failure rate” stood at a jaw-dropping 72 percent.

To help business owners and advisors – including accountants, financial advisors, and wealth managers – address these challenges, Capitaliz offers a suite of tools and insights designed to quantify current business valuation, pinpoint key drivers of value, and recommend strategic steps to enhance business value.

“It’s crucial for our growth and our commitment to providing solutions for business owners and advisors facing succession challenges,” West said.