Insights for principals of advice firms
Articles on succession, file quality, valuation, your own exit and what happens to clients afterwards.
Articles on succession, file quality, valuation, your own exit and what happens to clients afterwards.
A buyer prices an advice firm partly on the client files: review dates, suitability evidence, service agreements and current data.
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How the timing of a sale affects the price, and what agreeing a floor when you join Securo changes.
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How the handover meetings, the client file, the acquiring firm and written commitments decide the service your clients receive after you retire.
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A long-established firm may have clients paying for an annual review they have not had. This is a Consumer Duty issue first and a valuation issue second.
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Making sure somebody else at the firm has met each client takes about two years and raises what the firm is worth.
Read itWho sets the floor, when it is set and what happens if you disagree. Three questions to ask of any such commitment, including ours.
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Preparing for retirement takes longer than eighteen months. How long each part of the preparation takes, from the client files to agreeing terms.
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Your firm may have households below the level at which a servicing model pays for itself. Ask a buyer what will happen to them.
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A successor may already work at your firm. Internal succession most often fails because the successor cannot raise the money.
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The same multiple can produce different amounts of money depending on what it is applied to, when it is paid and what conditions attach.
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Who is buying, how the price is set, what happens if you decline, what your clients experience, and the timing of a network’s internal succession route.
Read itThe three meetings of a handover year and what each one is for.
Read itThe premium is the insurance market’s price for the risk in your back book. It also shows each year how a buyer is likely to view your firm.
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Questions to ask about each buyer’s plans for your clients, alongside the price.
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How to write down the client knowledge that is not in the file, so the next adviser can use it.
Read itCutting to three days a week reduces your advising time. The work of running a regulated firm stays the same.
Read itHow to record why you did not recommend the obvious alternative, in four lines on the file.
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Preparing for the change in your working life after the sale, as well as for the transaction.
Read itHow the change to inheritance tax on pensions affects your own pension and the timing of your exit.
Read itThe relief is still there, at a higher rate than before, and whether it applies depends on what is sold, by whom, and how the money reaches you.
Read itDuring a transfer, each client's ongoing fee depends on paperwork, platform processes and a service agreement the client has seen. Each needs checking before the transfer.
Read itA complaint about advice you gave can arrive years after you retire. Find out now which policy would answer it.
Read itHow to hand over the households who have never dealt with anyone else at the firm.
Read itOf everything a principal does, the research and report writing is the easiest to hand to somebody else, and handing it over frees the time the rest of the exit needs.
Read itAfter completion, a buyer's integration team moves clients, data, fees and staff onto its own systems. Ask to see that plan before you sign.
Read itWhen a younger adviser in your firm asks to buy it, the conversation is about funding, timing and the price, and it needs to be held carefully.
Read itOld pension plans, closed funds and clients spread across a dozen providers take time to deal with, and a buyer will want to know which of them you have reviewed.
Read itClient data goes to a buyer in stages, and what the clients are told and asked to agree to depends on how the transfer is made.
Read itMost of the preparation for an exit can be done before your staff, your clients or a buyer know you are thinking about it.
Read itIf you could not work from tomorrow, your clients, your staff and your family would need a plan that exists already.
Read itA principal who wants to keep advising part time needs the work arranged around the days they are in. Under Securo the back office runs on the other days.
Read itTelling a household you have advised for twenty years that you are stepping back needs preparation, a meeting in person, and a plan for who comes next.
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Guides on valuation, getting the file ready, due diligence, novation, telling your clients and your team, and the step-back timeline year by year.
Steven 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.