A Winning Team: Selecting Qualified Experts To Help You Sell Your Practice

For most owners of a Financial Advisor practice, you only sell your practice once. As a once in a lifetime deal, you’ll want to do it right. Doing it right means surrounding yourself with a variety of trusted advisors with experience and a successful track record of supporting owners through the sale.

The Team Players

A practice sale has many moving parts and requires a variety of expertise and technical knowledge to execute properly. Specifically, you will want to secure the following advisors:

Succession Expert

A succession expert is either a member of your B/D platform or a qualified third party who works directly with the seller to help them prepare their practice, locate a buyer, secure a valuation, and handle negotiations. Not all Succession Experts are created equal. Their suite of services and experience can vary widely, so be sure to thoroughly explore what they offer before committing.

Also don’t be too quick to assume that your B/D succession team is the best option for your unique deal. Often times internal succession teams undervalue the practice. And, since the buyer is the one who will remain on the platform after the transaction, they are more likely to work in the best interest of the buyer. On the other hand, and independent succession expert is compensated based on how good of a deal they get for the seller, and therefore works to represent the best interest of the seller.

Legal Advisor

To properly protect the interests of both parties, its important to have a legal expert who is experienced at developing contracts for the sale of a financial advisor practice. Sometimes the succession expert is also a legal advisor, but often they are two separate experts who work together to help negotiate and structure the deal on behalf of the seller. Generally, the buyer and seller each retain their own counsel, though there are certain cases where a legal advisor can work as a neutral third party to develop the contract.

Lending Support

Pulling in a variety of lending sources expands your pool of viable buyers. Third party lenders not only provide better terms and options to the buyer, they also ensure that seller can collect his money when the transaction closes without staying tied to the business as a financier. Not all buyers are aware of their lending options. Bringing them to the table will attract buyers who might not otherwise consider putting in an offer. It’s also important to note that lenders actively build relationships with Succession Experts and other trusted service providers who serve financial advisors. The Succession Expert can provide a list of vetted lending partners that the borrower can choose from, saving the seller and buyer time and energy searching for lenders on their own.

Unique transactions may require additional experts, but for the most part this is the core team necessary to carry both the buyer and seller through to a successful outcome. Of course, not all experts are created equal, and so it is important to thoroughly vet potential advisors before contracting them.

Selecting Your Expert Team

As with any business arrangement, you want to do your homework before committing. When reviewing potential experts to assist with your transaction, some questions you will want to ask are:

• What types of practices have they worked with before, including any practices on your specific B/D platform?
• How do they ensure that they get the best deal possible for the seller?
• For Succession Experts specifically, how do they locate and vet potential buyers?
• What support services do they offer during the transaction?For lenders, how do they streamline and help speed up the process?

These are just a few sample questions and by no means an exhaustive list. It is always good to ask for references if possible and to check their track record in your industry and with your specific B/D platform. Again, this is a once in a lifetime transaction for you. Take your time selecting your expert team. It will make a tremendous difference in the long run.