Stress-Test Your Exit Plan Before a DSO Letter of Intent

The offer will come on an ordinary day, between patients.

What you do before that day will matter more than anything you do after it.

Maybe it is an email from a group you know. Maybe a broker calls. Maybe a letter of intent lands with a number that makes you sit back in your chair.

From that moment, the clock is not yours. Deadlines. Documents. Diligence. Your attention goes to the deal, because it has to.

That is why the best time to test your plan is now.

When no one sees the whole picture

Here is a composite case from my own research on uncoordinated advice. It is not a real client. Every piece of it is common.

A specialist with several locations got an unsolicited offer from a DSO. He had good people around him. A CPA. An attorney. A financial advisor.

When the letter arrived, each of them did their own job, in their own lane.

His CPA had never raised how the practice's entity structure might affect a sale. His attorney, without deep dental deal experience, let the buyer shape how the price was allocated. His advisor heard about the sale weeks before closing. Too late to plan around it.

No one did anything wrong on purpose. No one was looking at the whole picture. By the time the deal was moving, most of the helpful choices were gone.

See the unsolicited DSO offer scenario.

Now picture your own team. Would the story end any differently?

Why good plans drift

Most dental owners I meet have done some planning. The plan is rarely missing. It was just built in pieces.

Life moves. Your family changes. Your assets grow. The people around you change. But each piece was built at a different time, by a different professional, and they do not always talk to each other.

Each piece may be fine alone. Together, they may not fit.

A sale is when those gaps get expensive.

What the wealthiest families do

John Bowen and Russ Alan Prince of CEG Worldwide once asked 199 senior executives a simple question. These were the people who run the financial affairs of families worth more than $500 million. Families at that level usually have attorneys, accountants, and investment professionals on staff.

Over the previous five years, had they brought in an outside group to stress test their plans?

93.5% said yes.

They had every resource in the world, and they still paid someone from outside to look for what they missed. Bowen's reason is simple. Avoid the mistakes that do real damage. Do not leave good opportunities on the table.

You want the same two things. With less room for error.

What a stress test looks at

A real stress test is not a portfolio review with a new name. It asks three questions.

Is your team working together? Do your CPA, attorney, and investment advisor talk before decisions get made? Is there one written plan, or several separate ones?

Is the planning current? Has anyone shown you what you would keep after tax under different sale structures? Is the plan built for who you are now?

Does your team know you? Do they understand your family, your values, and what you want life to look like after you hand over the keys?

The process is simple. It starts with you: your values, your goals, the people who matter most, what you own, who advises you now, and what you love outside the operatory. Then your current plan is checked against that picture. The assumptions get tested. Options get compared. You leave with a clear next step.

What it is not

It is not a valuation. Your broker or a qualified appraiser helps you understand what the market may pay for your practice. That is their work, not mine. For what DSOs are paying, see DSO valuation multiples in 2026.

It is not a sales pitch. It is not a promise about investment results. No one can honestly make that promise.

It is a careful second look, done while you still have time to act on what it finds.

Before the letter, you have options

Before an offer, you can change how things are set up. You can get your advisors working from one plan. You can think about life after the sale without a deadline over your shoulder.

After you sign a letter of intent, many of those choices get harder. Some disappear.

Find the crack in the foundation before the house is under contract.

Once a letter does arrive, here is how to read a DSO letter of intent.

If a serious offer landed this month, would your plan hold up?

Book your 25-minute Exit Stress Test and we will stress test it together before the clock starts.

This article is for educational purposes only and is not tax, legal, or investment advice. Consult your own qualified professionals about your situation.