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Powersports Business • September 2025 • 13

BY PAULINA MATEL & BRAD STANEK CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

When the recently passed One Big Beautiful Bill made headlines, much of the industry conversation centered on its implications for dealership entities. Those are important discussions, but they leave a critical piece of the puzzle underexplored: the personal financial planning moves every dealership owner should be considering right now. In this article, we will shift the focus from the showroom floor to your own personal net worth statement— highlighting practical strategies that can help you protect your wealth and align your personal and family goals with this new legislative landscape.

FAMILY CONSIDERATIONS

• 529 Expanded provision: Qualified distributions now cover a broader range of expenses. The bill expanded qualified distributions for K−12 expenses to include curriculum materials, tutoring, standardized testing fees and some homeschooling expenses. In addition, 529 accounts can now be used for postsecondary licenses and credentials, as well as educational therapies for students with disabilities.

• The bill makes permanent the ability to roll over unused 529 funds into an Achieving a Better Life Experience( ABLE) account for the same beneficiary( or a family member). For those unfamiliar with an ABLE account, it is a tax-advantaged savings account designated for individuals with disabilities, allowing them( and their families) to save for disability-related expenses without jeopardizing eligibility for federal benefits like Supplemental Security Income( SSI) or Medicaid.

• Trump accounts( starting 1 / 1 / 26): For babies born between 2025−2028, these accounts will be available for beneficiaries under the age of 18. The U. S. government will make an initial $ 1,000 deposit, and families will be able to contribute up to $ 5,000 / year( indexed for inflation), allowing the funds to grow tax deferred until withdrawals take place. Qualified withdrawals, which include education expenses, first-time home purchase, and even small business start-up, will be taxed at capital gain rates.

RETIREMENT, SUCCESSION AND ESTATE

• Additional deduction: Individuals ages 65 and older, regardless of whether or not they are receiving Social Security benefits, will receive an additional senior deduction of $ 6,000 per individual for tax years 2025−2028. The senior deduction begins to phase out when taxpayers’ modified adjusted gross income exceeds $ 75,000($ 150,000 in the case of a joint return).

• Estate and gift taxes: The Lifetime Estate and Gift Tax Exemption amounts have been made permanent, providing additional clarity for estate and gift planning. Starting in 2026, the Gift and Estate Tax exemption increases to $ 15 million for individuals and $ 30 million for those married and filing jointly, indexed to inflation, going forward. In addition, the generation-skipping tax( GST) exemption matches the new estate exemption to $ 15 million per person.

ADDITIONAL CONSIDERATION

• State and local tax( SALT) Deductions: OBBBA raises the cap on deductibility from $ 10,000 to $ 40,000, with a phaseout starting at $ 500,000 in income for joint filers, and it phases out completely above $ 600,000. SALT reform mainly impacts residents of high tax states, such as California, New York, and New Jersey.

• The SALT cap increases the percentage of households that take the standard deduction versus itemizing their deductions, so charitable giving strategies such as a Qualified Charitable Distribution( QCD) should be revisited with your tax advisor.

As these changes unfold, powersports dealers are encouraged to engage in comprehensive financial planning discussions to fully leverage the opportunities presented by OBBBA.

The bottom line is simple— One Big Beautiful Bill brings more than tax changes for your powersports dealership— it reshapes the personal financial landscape for owners and their families. Now is the time to review your planning strategies to ensure these new provisions work in your favor. We recommend scheduling a Q3 / Q4 meeting with both your tax planner and financial planner for a year-end meeting, so that you can position yourself to capture every available opportunity before year-end. Proactive planning today can translate into meaningful savings and greater flexibility tomorrow.

Brad Stanek, CFP, is an executive director with the Stanek-Haack Group at Morgan Stanley, brad. stanek @ ms. com; Paulina Matel, CFP, is a vice president with the Stanek-Haack Group at Morgan Stanley, paulina. matel @ ms. com.

Episode 3: Month 1— Reflections, roadmaps & results

I walked into day two with one big question weighing on me: How would I cover the service desk now that my only service adviser had given notice? My first thought was to pull my one sales guy— who had previously worked in service— into that role temporarily until I could find a replacement.

But when I went looking for him, he wasn’ t even in the store. MAX MATERNE He was on his way to deliver a bike an hour and a half away, for free.

Before I could process that, the hits kept coming: my second tech had injured his hand and wouldn’ t be in. A trash hauler was waiting for payment. The company credit card bounced at a gas station. And, as if on cue, a letter from one of our brands arrived announcing a change in our territory.

It wasn’ t even 10 a. m. and I could feel it— that familiar cocktail of dread, anxiety, and regret. The suffocating blanket I remembered all too well from my first 17 years running this store.

But this time, I caught myself. Week one’ s plan was to make a plan. And that plan had to start with understanding the people responsible for the numbers.

THE ADVISER The outgoing adviser was sharp, knowledgeable, and had been holding the department together with no real support. When I asked why he was leaving, the truth came out quickly— he never wanted to be an adviser. He wanted to be a tech. He told every manager that, but no one ever put together a path to make it happen. They kept him where they needed him, not where he needed to be. If you don’ t evolve with your people, you’ ll lose them. It was too late to keep him— he’ d already accepted a tech position elsewhere. But in a rare break, he gave me a lead: someone who’ d stopped in the week before asking about a job. He had enough experience to do the work, but not so much that he was set in his ways. I interviewed him the next day, hired him that night, and by some miracle, I had one week of overlap for a clean handoff.

THE TECH & SALES MANAGER Next came the tech meetings. The lead tech was highly skilled, certified across the board, and honest about the challenges— problems that couldn’ t be fixed overnight. His truth was hard to hear but necessary. The second tech was creative and capable, but underperforming in terms of efficiency, likely due to being poorly set up for success.

Then there was the sales manager— the only person left from when I owned the store. Loyal, adaptable, and a rider through and through. He wanted to fight for this place as badly as I did. For the first time that week, I felt a flicker of optimism. And then … the next bombshell That weekend, I got news I didn’ t expect. Two key staff members were“ doing frowned upon things”— on the clock. The only salesperson and the second tech.

Now, in total, half the staff we started with— gone.

THE ROADMAP From the beginning, the goal wasn’ t just to patch holes— it was to build something sustainable. Something that could stand on its own. But before we could do that, we had to understand exactly what we were working with.

We spent the first weeks studying everything we could of each department— the people, the processes, the numbers, and the culture underneath it all. Once we had a clear picture of how the parts were functioning( or not), we stepped back to see how they all connected.

What we saw wasn’ t just dysfunction— it was opportunity. Areas where focus could drive real returns. Leverage points that had gone ignored. Waste that could be turned into wins.

Only then— with the full picture in view— did we put the plan to paper. Using Ownex’ s DELV framework, we laid out a six-step plan: 1. Fix service contribution – Move from negative to a healthy 45−cent contribution per $ 1 in labor sales. 2. Cut monthly expenses – Payroll, rent, and interest have to be brought back in line. 3. Drive service proficiency – Turn service into the cash flow engine it’ s meant to be.

4. Increase customer engagement – Strategic lifecycle touchpoints, targeted marketing, in-store experiences, community support and engagement.

5. Improve sales contribution – Marry timeless sales psychology with how customers actually buy today.

6. Build the GM role – Create a seamless leadership handoff when we step away.

THE FIRST MONTH’ S RESULTS The truth is, turning a dealership around doesn’ t happen in clean lines or tidy chapters. It’ s more like CPR— a lot of pressure, a few cracks, and the hope that something starts beating again.

Month one was triage. We cut deep where we had to. We stitched up what we could. And we started transfusing fresh life back into the parts of the business that were barely hanging on. The team was smaller, leaner, but more aligned. Systems were taking shape. The numbers weren’ t where we wanted them— not yet— but you could feel the shift in momentum. Like a pulse just beginning to come back.

By the end of July, service contribution had jumped from −5.4 % to 38.1 %, and service proficiency rose from an overstated 67.4 % to a verified 105.2 %. We replaced the outgoing adviser and hired a support role to help stabilize both service and parts. We restructured our tech stack, removing the C-tech and bringing our A-tech to full utilization. At the same time, we renegotiated key expenses: adjusting payroll, securing better terms from the landlord, and reviewing our OEM agreements. On the customer side, we launched new marketing efforts— combining the shotgun-style visibility of IgnitionXD with lifecycle-targeted campaigns built

See Materne, Page 14