$200+ Billion Question: What Happens When Indiana’s Baby Boomer Business Owners Retire?

Today, many business owners are approaching retirement age, creating what economists call the “Silver Tsunami”, a wave of Baby Boomer business owners exiting their businesses over the next decade. The region’s next generation of growth may depend less on any single development project, like a data center, and more on whether existing owners can exit well – and whether new residents, managers, investors, and entrepreneurs can step into ownership before local businesses lose momentum or disappear.

The numbers are difficult to ignore. According to Indiana’s Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation and the Indiana Business Research Center, businesses owned by individuals age 55 and older generate nearly 60% of Indiana’s total business revenue. Recent state analysis estimates that more than $217 billion in annual business revenue is tied to businesses owned by people in this age group.

These statistics matter because ownership transitions affect more than individual business owners. In many communities, locally owned businesses are major employers, taxpayers, charitable contributors, and civic leaders. Successful transitions can keep jobs, customer relationships, local wealth, and civic leadership rooted in the region. Failed or delayed transitions can produce the opposite – a slow erosion of locally owned enterprises at the same time Northeast Indiana is working to attract new people and investments.

Northeast Indiana has a strong base of privately held companies owned by founders or second-generation family members nearing retirement. At the same time, the region has a needed counterpart – returning graduates, mid-career professionals, investors, and aspiring entrepreneurs who may be looking for a practical path into business ownership. The challenge is connecting the former and the latter before the window closes.

Viewed through that lens, succession planning is not merely a private estate planning exercise. It is regional economic infrastructure and, for many owners, one of the most important acts of community stewardship available to them right now. Owners need tools to understand value, identify successors, structure a transition, address family and tax issues, and preserve the culture and relationships that made the business successful. Potential buyers and successors need access to capital, acquisition education, mentorship, advisers, and a realistic understanding of what it takes to operate a mature company.

The good news is that the Silver Tsunami is not merely a looming problem. It also represents one of the largest business acquisition and regional development opportunities in recent history. A growing number of entrepreneurs are pursuing “entrepreneurship through acquisition,” purchasing existing businesses rather than starting from scratch. For aspiring entrepreneurs, managers, and investors, many profitable Northeast Indiana companies may offer established customers, proven operations, and experienced employees. For the region, that creates a chance to retain legacy businesses while welcoming new ownership and new ideas into the local economy.

National studies consistently show that many business owners do not have a comprehensive succession plan. As a result, owners often must decide who will run the business next, whether the company should stay in the family, whether key employees can lead, what the business is worth, how to treat children fairly, and whether a sale will provide enough retirement security. These questions become harder to answer when planning is delayed. They become more manageable when owners begin several years before retirement, while they still have flexibility, options, and control.

Business owners should not wait for a buyer, banker, adviser, family member, or emergency to force the conversation. Meaningful planning starts with practical steps – understand the company’s value, identify realistic successor options, prepare management to operate without the owner’s daily involvement, clean up legal and financial loose ends, and begin candid conversations with family members and key advisers.

At a regional level, the goal is consistent – preserve viable businesses, keep jobs and wealth anchored locally, create on-ramps for the next generation of owners, and protect institutions that have served as pillars of their communities. At the owner level, a well-designed succession plan can preserve jobs, protect customer relationships, reduce tax exposure, support financial security, and improve the owner’s ability to choose when and how to retire. The absence of a plan can jeopardize the value that took decades to create and leave the owner with fewer exit options when that value is needed most.

For Northeast Indiana, the Silver Tsunami should be viewed with urgency and optimism. If the region helps owners prepare, educates potential successors, expands access to capital, and builds a stronger market for business transitions, it can turn a demographic challenge into a development strategy. If it waits too long, locally built companies may close, sell outside the region, or lose the value that made them important community assets. For business owners, the call to action is direct – start before you feel ready. Assemble the right advisers, define what a successful exit looks like, and begin building a transition plan while there is time to shape the outcome.

About the Authors:

Jordan Martell is a business savvy attorney with a mission to support institutions that are the backbone of thriving communities: local employers and businesses. He believes strong local economies built strong, resilient communities.

Holly M. Weber is an experienced attorney who specializes in helping people plan for ownership transitions, business sales, and long-term succession. She works with closely held and family-owned companies to address the legal, tax, family, and practical issues that can determine whether a transition succeeds or stalls. Holly’s goal is to help owners protect what they have built and exit on their own terms, whether through a sale, family succession, management transition, or other planned exit.

Sources

• Indiana Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Keep IN Initiative Announcement (May 6, 2026), available through the Indiana Economic Development Corporation.
• Indiana Business Research Center, Indiana's Silver Tsunami: The Economic Impact of Business Owners Age 55 and Older (2026).
• Whitney Downard, Indiana Working to Preserve Local Businesses Through Ownership Changes, Indiana Capital Chronicle (Aug. 17, 2026).
• Project Equity, The Great Business Transfer Opportunity (2024).
• Exit Planning Institute, The State of Owner Readiness Report (2023).