Stage 3 — What is the real cost hurdle?

Create separate worksheets for tax effects, professional costs and liquidity. Enter only adviser-supported tax effects into a decision case; use zero or a visibly hypothetical scenario when those effects are unknown.

Suggested equations:

• Additional professional cost = new adviser fees + external implementation + continuing administration − genuinely displaced fees.
• Simple net benefit = incremental permanent tax reduction − additional professional cost.
• Liquidity at each date = opening cash + receipts − operating payments − implementation cash + actual tax cash effects.

Do not subtract owner retirement contributions from net wealth as if they disappeared. Do show the loss of available cash. Do not subtract an asset’s purchase price as an advisory fee; evaluate the asset’s operating value, financing and later disposal separately.

Build base, delayed-benefit and lower-benefit scenarios. The purpose is to find which assumptions drive the purchase, not to manufacture a positive return.

Exit condition: no deduction is labelled as a dollar-for-dollar saving; no baseline benefit is claimed twice.