
Advisers ask Steven Bates about ownership, the exit terms, their clients, their team and how Securo is regulated.
No. You carry on running your business and you carry on advising your clients. What moves across is the running of it — compliance oversight, paraplanning, administration and the technology underneath. Ownership of the business stays with you until the day you choose to sell, and the terms of that sale are agreed before you start.
Then you never have to. Securo works as an operating arrangement on its own, and the exit terms are there if and when you want them. They do not expire.
E&G acquires the assets under management at no less than market value at the point you retire. The floor is agreed in writing at the start so you are not relying on goodwill years later. Structure — timing, how much is paid up front, what is deferred — is agreed firm by firm. A firm with 40 households needs a different structure from a firm with 400. See Your exit.
You do, for as long as you want to. Nothing is said to a client without your agreement. When you are ready, clients meet the adviser who will look after them next while you are still in the room, which is when the relationship transfers.
The day-to-day support looks similar: compliance, paraplanning, administration, a technology stack you did not have to buy. The difference is the ending: Securo has a priced exit, agreed in writing before you start.
Then your clients are novated to a host of your choosing and you walk away. It is written into the arrangement from the start.
Yes. Advisers do change their minds once the pressure comes off, in both directions. E&G's immediate route is Fiducia — acquisition of your clients now, full novation, and a handover on your timetable. It runs through Advisor Group.
Typically principal-led firms managing £25m–£100m of assets under management. Firms outside that range can join. We look at the ages of your clients and the state of your client files as well as the assets. See Is it for you?
That is one of the first things we work out together. Some firms bring their whole team, some bring nobody and hand the administration over entirely. Both arrangements are possible. We agree which one applies in the first conversation, because it changes the structure of the arrangement.
Securo is a programme name of Equity & General and is not a separate legal entity. The regulated firm is Equity & General Financial Services Limited, directly authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority under number 474163.

The four stages are joining, reconnecting with legacy clients, handing over gradually and the exit.
The four stages
The floor of no less than market value, and what is agreed firm by firm.
How the exit is agreed
Compliance, paraplanning, administration and infrastructure.
The four functionsSteven Bates, Director of Advisory at Equity & General, takes the first call with every adviser. Ring him on 020 8396 0486 or send a short note about your firm.