A financial advisor in Kennett Square
for the families who built
something worth passing on.
James Walter Wealth Management is an independent, family run financial advisor working with business owners, farm families, and multi generational households across southern Chester County. Our office is in West Chester, fifteen minutes up Route 1.
Where planning earns its
keep in Kennett Square.
Southern Chester County is a place where the business, the land, and the family are usually the same conversation. That changes what planning has to account for.
Succession, Not Just Retirement
When the next generation is already working in the business, the question is not when to retire. It is how ownership moves, on what timeline, and at what cost. Exit planning starts years before anyone signs anything.
Land Held for Generations
Property bought decades ago carries a cost basis that bears no resemblance to its value today. Titling, timing, and whether it transfers during life or at death all change the arithmetic considerably, which is where estate planning does its work.
Exemptions Most People Miss
Pennsylvania's inheritance tax generally applies from the first dollar, but the Commonwealth carved out specific exemptions for agricultural property and family owned businesses. They are not automatic, and claiming them is part of tax planning rather than an afterthought.
The Delaware Line
Wilmington is twenty minutes away, and plenty of households here have income, property, or employment on both sides of the border. Two states, two sets of rules, one plan that has to account for both.
What we see
around Kennett Square.
Kennett Square is the mushroom capital of the world, and the title is not a tourism slogan. Chester County accounts for roughly half of all mushrooms grown in the United States, across dozens of farms concentrated within about twenty five miles of the borough. Most of them are family owned, and plenty of the operators describe themselves as fourth generation, with a fifth and sixth coming up behind them.
That produces a specific kind of balance sheet. An operating business, the real estate it sits on, equipment, and almost no liquidity relative to the total. When the owner dies without planning, the family can be asset rich and cash poor at exactly the moment a tax bill arrives.
Pennsylvania has addressed part of this. Legislation passed in 2012 and 2013 created exemptions from inheritance tax for real estate devoted to the business of agriculture, for certain agricultural reserve and conservation easement property, and for qualified family owned business interests. The agricultural exemption generally requires the land to stay in agricultural use for at least seven years after death, and the family business exemption generally applies to companies under fifty full time employees. Both require the exemption to be claimed on a timely filed inheritance tax return, which is where families most often lose them.
This is general information rather than tax advice, and the details matter enormously in any particular situation. But it is worth knowing that the exemptions exist, because the planning has to be in place well before anyone needs them. Chester County returns are filed with the Chester County Register of Wills.
Not everyone here farms, of course. The borough itself has become a genuine downtown, and the area around it holds horse farms, long held estates, and professionals commuting to Wilmington and Philadelphia. The common thread is wealth that is illiquid, local, and meant to stay in the family, which is the whole point of legacy planning.
Independent, and small enough that you know who is doing the work.
We are a family run registered investment advisory firm. The financial advisor you meet in the first conversation is the one building and maintaining your plan. There is no handoff to a service team.
That matters more than usual with family businesses, where the planning conversation is also a family conversation. It helps when the same people are in the room each time.
We coordinate with your attorney and accountant rather than working around them. Most of what happens on these plans requires all three.
See where your plan
stands in about a minute.
Our Financial Assessment walks through the pieces most often left uncoordinated and shows you where the gaps are.
Choosing a financial advisor
in Kennett Square, answered.
Do you have a financial advisor office in Kennett Square?
Our office is at 882 South Matlack Street, Suite 109, West Chester, PA 19382, about fifteen minutes from Kennett Square. We meet clients there, at their home or business, or by video. For farm and business owners, we usually come to you.
Can farmland pass to the next generation without Pennsylvania inheritance tax?
It can, in certain circumstances. Pennsylvania exempts real estate devoted to the business of agriculture when it transfers between members of the same family and stays in agricultural use for at least seven years, and there are separate exemptions covering agricultural reserve and conservation easement property. Each has its own conditions, and all require the exemption to be claimed on a timely filed return. This is general information rather than tax advice, so the specifics are worth working through with your attorney and accountant.
What about a family business that is not a farm?
Pennsylvania also provides an exemption for qualified family owned business interests, which generally applies to companies under fifty full time employees transferring to certain family members, with a continuation requirement after death. The planning has to be in place beforehand, not sorted out afterward.
We are years away from selling or transitioning. Is it too early to talk?
Almost certainly not. The options available five years out are meaningfully different from the ones available five months out. Most of what we can do for a business owner depends on having time.
We have ties on both sides of the Delaware line. Does that complicate things?
It adds a layer. Residency, where property sits, and where income is earned all affect how a plan is structured. It is manageable, but it is worth getting right rather than assuming one state's rules apply to everything.
What does it take to get started?
An introductory conversation. We will talk through your situation and tell you honestly whether we are the right fit for it.
Kennett Square and
southern Chester County.
We work with clients throughout Kennett Square and the surrounding townships, including Kennett Township, New Garden, Avondale, Toughkenamon, Landenberg, West Grove, Unionville, and Chadds Ford.
The best time to plan
is before you need to.
If you are thinking about how the business, the land, or the family holdings move to the next generation, that is a conversation worth having early. Tell us where things stand and we will tell you plainly whether we can help.
882 South Matlack Street, Suite 109, West Chester, PA 19382
team@jameswalterwm.com