For small business owners & entrepreneurs
Cash is lumpy. Most of your net worth is still inside the company. The exit is a conversation you keep postponing. Vital's business-owner practice, led by Rusty Tredwell, helps you take care of treasury, planning, investing, and the transition you will eventually face.
Meet with Rusty · See How We Work
Call Rusty at (617) 992-0305 or call the Service Team at (970) 776-3316.
Business Owner Financial Clarity Assessment
Eight questions. Four pillars. A plain-language read on cash, visibility, growth alignment, and whether the business could transfer if it had to. Then three next moves mapped to the work we actually do.
Sample results view
Cash & Treasury
Visibility
Growth Alignment
Transition Ready
Sample scores for layout only. Your results are calculated from your answers on this device.
Free tools & resources
Built for owners, entrepreneurs, and 1099 workers who want something useful before they book time. No login required to start.
Detailed fact finder
The PreciseFP organizer collects the facts a real plan needs: the business, the household, taxes, insurance, and the goals sitting on top of both.
Fill in what you have. Come back for the rest.
A complete fact finder before the first planning meeting
Start Your Free Financial Planning OrganizerFree financial snapshot
A short eMoney snapshot for owners and 1099 workers who want a first look at cash flow, savings, and whether the current path can fund the life they are building.
About 10 minutes
A simple on-track picture you can bring to Rusty
Am I On Track? Free Financial SnapshotWhite-labeled planning guides you can keep. Open a PDF, mark it up, and bring the questions to a discovery call if you want a second set of eyes.
A comprehensive checklist covering long-term goals, tax issues, insurance, succession planning, entity choice, hiring, benefits coordination, and more, tailored for business owners and independent contractors.
Download Free GuideSide-by-side comparison of Traditional Defined Benefit, Cash Balance, Target Benefit, and Money Purchase plans: eligibility, contributions, limits, vesting, PBGC insurance, and deadlines.
Download Free GuideClear comparison of Solo 401(k), Safe Harbor 401(k), traditional 401(k), Profit Sharing, SIMPLE IRA, and SEP IRA: contribution limits, eligibility, testing, loans, Roth options, and deadlines.
Download Free GuideThese tools and guides are for educational purposes only and do not constitute personalized financial, tax, or legal advice. Please consult a qualified professional for advice specific to your situation.
The quiet pressure
Most owners we sit with are not careless. They are busy. The business got the best of their attention for a decade. The personal financial life, and the treasury function, grew up in the leftover hours.
A strong month and a tight month can live in the same quarter. Surplus sits idle, or you pull from the operating account because there is no system for reserves, taxes, and distributions.
The company, the building, the book of business. That concentration built your life. It is also the risk no generic portfolio model was designed to see.
You will not run this forever. Buyers, children, or a partner will eventually need a company that can stand without you. That work does not start the year you get tired.
K-1s, estimated taxes, buy-sell language, working capital. If your advisor needs those translated, they are planning for a household that is not yours.
How we help owners
These are not product lines. They are the decisions that actually change an owner's life. Start where the pressure is. The rest connects.
For growing businesses
Operating cash, reserves, and short-term decisions that finally have a system.
Explore Treasury ManagementWealth outside the company
A portfolio designed around concentration risk, liquidity, and the life you want after the business.
Explore Investment ManagementPersonal + business, together
One coordinated plan for compensation, taxes, savings, and the life you are trying to fund.
Explore Financial PlanningBefore you need the money
A realistic path from “someday” to a transition you can live with.
Explore Business Transition & SaleLed with Cindy Bragdon
Documents, ownership, and a succession story that match the business you actually run.
Explore Estate & Succession PlanningNot sure where to start
The discovery call is for sorting the pile, not for a pitch.
The owner journey
Click a stage. If you have already taken the assessment, we highlight the one that best matches your answers.
The business is still the engine. The job is to keep owner pay, taxes, and reserves from becoming accidental while you scale.
Relevant services
Tools for this stage
Why Rusty & the Vital team
Rusty Tredwell is a Senior Financial Advisor at Vital Investment Management, based in Marblehead, Massachusetts. He spent nearly fifteen years as a Senior Vice President at PIMCO after a decade at Fidelity. He leads this practice because owners should not have to translate their company, their concentration risk, or their next decade for the person advising their life.
Trust, not theater
Vital Investment Management reported over $333 million in assets under management as of August 17, 2026. The number matters less than how the firm is structured: independent, fee-only, and small enough that your story does not get lost.
Fee-only
No commissions. No product shelf. Fiduciary standard.
$333M+
Firm AUM as of August 17, 2026. Not a performance claim.
New England
Rusty works from Marblehead, backed by the Vital team—not a national call center.
“I finally have a cash system that matches the way the shop actually runs. Rusty did not talk to me like a retail investor. He talked to me like someone who has made payroll.”
“Most advisors wanted to manage a brokerage account and ignore the practice. Vital started with the buy-sell, the building, and what happens if I cannot work for six months.”
“Cindy asked the succession questions I had been avoiding for years. We still have work to do, but the family and the company are no longer on two different maps.”
Start before the meeting
A practical, one-sitting checklist to see whether cash, taxes, personal savings, and the business are actually working together. Use it on a Sunday night. Bring it to the discovery call if you want a sharper conversation.
We will email the checklist. You can unsubscribe any time. This is not an offer of advisory services.
A discovery call with Rusty is confidential, fiduciary, and pressure-free. Bring the mess. That is the point.
