Success in any endeavor comes from a combination of luck, timing, and strategy. If your goal is to grow your practice, acquire another firm, or build a legacy with your financial advisory business, developing the right strategy is crucial to your success. In Sun Tzu’s The Art of War – often cited as the canon of business and military tactics – understanding your unique strengths and weaknesses compared to your competitors’ is the foundation of a successful strategy.
Topics: Business Value, Benchmarking, Valuation & Appraisal
If 95% of financial advisory practices have only one owner then most are–or should be–looking outside their own advisory for a continuity partner. You should be that partner, especially if your long-term growth strategies include acquisition.
Topics: Continuity Planning, Acquisition
The single, biggest threat to the continuity of an independent financial services or advisory practice is the lack of formal plan to protect the clients, cash flow, and value in the event of the sudden death or disability of the primary advisor. And the biggest challenge to obtaining protection is finding a great continuity partner.
Topics: Continuity Planning
Here at FP Transitions, we're always striving to help you build a better business for a better life–a better life for you and a better life for your clients. We developed these webcasts with you in mind. We know your days are packed, and we respect that your time is valuable.
This webcast features Vice President Eric Leeper, CFA as he leads you on a deep dive into the succession planning process by exploring cash flow modeling and equity compensation as a way to stimulate exponential growth within your company.
Topics: Compensation, Succession Planning, Webcasts, Equity
The decision to sell a financial services practice is a difficult one for any advisor to make. After a lifetime of work to build your business, how do you just turn it over to someone else? Will they work as hard as you have? Will they care for your clients as much as you do?
When selling your practice, you get just one chance to do it right.
We recently spoke with one of our clients about their journey to selling their business. Their story provides unique insights into the process, and illustrates the opportunities–and the mistakes–that many first time sellers make.
Topics: Selling Your Practice, Acquisition
It’s not just a financial advisor mentality; it’s a human mentality. We KNOW life is finite, but we don’t want to think about our mortality, and we certainly don’t want to plan for it. But, as an advisor, isn’t that one of your big pitches? Invest now, plan wisely, and grow wealth for the future. Provide for your heirs when you’re gone. You encourage every one of your clients to not only plan for their future, but to prepare for what comes after. That’s good advice.
Topics: Continuity Planning
There is much to consider when determining and receiving the true value of your financial services practice, things like assets under management, client demographics, revenue mix, likely employee and client retention, and, of course, cash flow. Check out Wealth Management's recent article, "Boosting Curb Appeal" by Anne Field, for advisor experiences when it comes to looking at all the factors of practice value, including 25-year industry veteran Elizabeth Brickman who valued and sold her business with the help of FP Transitions, but not before realizing the importance of preparation and targeted growth prior to selling.
Understanding all the little things that boost the value of your business will not only benefit you should you decide to sell, but will help you identify areas on which to concentrate on to promote growth.
Topics: Selling Your Practice, Acquisition, Business Value, FPT in the News
Building a business that will continue to grow – even as you begin to work less – requires an efficient infrastructure and the right people. Creating such an infrastructure takes time and constant adjustment.
If you offer competitive wages and benefits you’ll not only attract, but hold on to talented professionals. Additionally, you should consider the strategy being used increasingly by many of your peers: equity compensation. Equity is providing an almost unfair edge for retaining and attracting top talent in the financial services industry.
Equity rewards key staff members for their dedication by granting them a stake in the business’ success and growth as a part of their compensation package.
Topics: Compensation, Succession Planning
We've been telling you that the recent release of Succession Planning for Financial Advisors: Building an Enduring Business by David Grau Sr., JD, is going to challenge everything advisors think they know about succession in the financial services industry.
But of course you know that succession is a passion of ours here at FP Transitions, and it's true that David is our president and founder. So, don't just take our word for it. The book's Amazon page is quickly filling up with comments from financial advisors like you about the invalubility of David's insight and clarification of one of our industry's most pressing issues:
Topics: Succession Planning, "Succession Planning for Financial Advisors", Published