# Holding cash after a business sale

Proceeds from a sale sit in cash for a reason: the owner has not decided what the money is for. A Liquidity strategy is sized to planned spending, not to the proceeds, so the first conversation is about what the next three years cost and what the rest is for.

Where a sale carries an earn-out, the contingent amount is not counted toward any goal until it is paid. It is listed, dated and excluded, so the plan does not depend on a number the buyer controls.

A new payee wire in the weeks after a sale is verified by a call to a number already on file. The request may be genuine; the verification is not optional.