We are Committed to Your Success,
Not Just Your Certification
Our mission is to empower advisors to deliver Exit Planning services across the Lower-Middle Market owner marketplace
Watch Tim O’Neill Share His Business Exit Experience
Tim O’Neill on Practical Guidance for Owners and Advisor Responsibility
Major takeaways are highlighted below:
Start Early & Plan Patiently
Tim’s exit resulted from more than seven years of planning and execution, and each stage required patience, structure, and alignment with long-term goals, ensuring decisions supported his personal and financial future.
Close the Value & Wealth Gap
When Tim first engaged in planning, a large portion of his wealth was tied to the business, and the exit plan revealed a value gap, prompting him to pursue a private equity recapitalization.
Reshape Business for Strong Exit
Tim spent several years intentionally reshaping the company by adding product lines, expanding service, investing in internal systems, and improving recurring revenue, and this focused planning enabled the transaction with a PE Group in 2016.
Watch our most recent Business Owner Interview!
Empowering Advisors, Ensuring Seamless Exits
Welcome to the International Exit Planning Association (“IEPA”), a practitioner-led organization of approximately 275 senior-level advisors and consultants committed to helping business owners prepare for and achieve successful exits from their privately held businesses.
Our members go beyond “exit talking”; they are advocates – “Exit Doers” who deliver high-quality, tailored solutions that cover every aspect of business exit planning. This practical experience is borne from the hundreds of exit plans produced by the IEPA staff and professionals and the thousands more produced by our members.
What Sets Us Apart: Practitioner-Led Expertise
In the world of exit planning, theoretical knowledge only scratches the surface and, classes alone produce “exit talkers”. The real mettle is tested in the trenches of practical application, or “Exit Doing”. That’s where IEPA stands out.
We aren’t just an academic entity or an education company; we are a consortium of seasoned practitioners with deep experience that benefits all members. Our team has developed hundreds of exit plans, advising on billions in illiquid wealth, having facilitated nearly half a billion dollars in liquidity events for business owners. This hands-on experience sets us apart, equipping us with the real-world knowledge to effectively support and train advisors. It is this experience that drives the development of our content, tools, support and IEPA member-network.
Mission, Vision,
& Focused on Results
Our mission is to empower both business owners and their advisors with the tools, training, and support they need. While our organization primarily serves professional advisors, our success isn’t measured by the quantity of advisors we educate and certify. Our success is defined by the seamless transitions we facilitate, the dreams we realize, and the legacies we preserve as we prepare for the significant transfer of Baby Boomer wealth in the coming decades.
Securing Business Legacies for Tomorrow
We envision a future where every lower-middle-market business owner is armed with a meticulously crafted exit plan, guiding them through a significant financial and emotional transition.
Building Trust: Business is Personal
We understand that business owners work with advisors they trust. That’s why we are committed to training and supporting our advisors to not only meet but exceed business owner expectations.
The Pillars of IEPA
We are guided by our core values of education, excellence, integrity, creativity, and service to others. These values shape our commitment to delivering unparalleled service to our network of Members and Certified Business Exit Consultants™.
IEPA Team
Meet John Leonetti
Our founder, John Leonetti, over the past few decades has advised hundreds of midsized firms on exit-related issues and is the author of Exiting Your Business, Protecting Your Wealth – A Strategic Guide for Owners and Their Advisors (2008, Wiley & Sons – original publisher) The book is considered by many the leading resource for owner exits. The 6-step process within the book is the foundation for the proven process that is the cornerstone of our training methodology.
Merging his formal training in law and finance with real-world exposure, John has pioneered curricula, tools, and support mechanisms for professional advisors over the last 30 years. His journey, dotted with diverse professional experiences – from family businesses to M&A firms, planning, to business sale transactions, and even academia – culminated in the birth of the IEPA.
At the helm of the IEPA, John has an adept team, each dedicated to realizing the company’s vision and mission.
Meet Tommy Delello
As the Training and Membership Coordinator at the International Exit Planning Association (IEPA), Tommy Delello oversees and coordinates our various programs including our Certified Business Exit Consultant (CBEC) designation training program. He creates a bridge between the team at the IEPA and the membership so the organization can provide a comprehensive and cohesive educational experience for all who interact with the IEPA.
Tommy draws on his communication and interpersonal skills to collaborate with subject matter experts to enhance the IEPA’s market-leading training. He plans, organizes, and coordinates training programs, workshops, and seminars for employees, members, and clients.
He is constantly working with the IEPA team and its community to continually improve the organization’s training capabilities.
Meet Jarrad Holtze
I’ve always been drawn to solving complex problems in simple, practical ways. Whether it was managing operations in the military, leading negotiations in real estate, or helping advisors grow their impact through exit planning — I’ve learned that success comes down to people, process, and purpose.
My career has taken me from structured environments where precision and accountability were non-negotiable, to high-trust, relationship-driven roles where empathy and communication make all the difference. Today, at the IEPA, I work with advisors who are committed to helping business owners plan smarter exits and protect their wealth. My role is to equip those advisors with the tools, education, and frameworks they need to turn exit planning from a concept into a repeatable, high-value process.
Outside of work, I’m a dad, a husband, and someone who believes that the best ideas come from real conversations and shared goals — not sales pitches. My mission is simple: help good people build better businesses, and make the journey to the finish line one worth remembering.