Success Story – Financial Planning Practice succession plan
The future is clear and his passion for advice has returned
SUCCESS STORY FOR A FINANCIAL PLANNING PRACTICE with a built-in SUCCESSION PLAN
BACK FROM THE BRINK....
Several years ago, a self employed Adviser well known to me suggested he was getting out of advice and selling his business after a twenty year career. Exhausted, it was all too hard, he questioned if he even wanted to be an Adviser any more with all the associated admin and daily headaches running his own practice.
No admin or CSM support, long hours and weekends, too busy to see new clients, wife working alongside him, he wanted to sell his practice and sail away to a brighter day. The dream had simply become hard work and he’s lost his passion.
On the face of it he'd been very successful in 6 years since commencing his practice - smallish client book of 50-60 with revenue circa $500k, tidy.
I understood why he wanted to get out, but warned him if he sold the farm (so to speak) he can't be a farmer anymore. His options were to sell, employ staff (undesirable) or engage with a Financial Advice business that had the resources to support him. He was curious about the latter solution, so we explored a few possibilities.
“Exhausted, it was all too hard running a Practice. The Adviser questioned if they wanted to be an Adviser any longer”
Fast forward 2 years, he has successfully integrated his business with 3 other Advisers that looked similar to him, all previously single Adviser Practices. Several had already bandied together under a single umbrella, they had a client service team, advice SOA production and implementation systems, unified resources for marketing/websites etc and three (now one) thriving advice business. Oh, and they all got to take holidays regularly.
After numerous careful discussions and due diligence he jumped on-board.
Speaking recently, he highlighted a few benefits:
- The future is clear and his passion for advice has returned
- The collaboration with like minded Advisers/Owners has re-invigorated him (no more loneliness)
- His wife no longer needs to work in the business
- No weekend or evening work unless he chooses
- Most importantly, the support in the business has returned his time so he can focus on being a Financial Adviser.
Let's face it, running a business can be tough.
Running a Financial Advice practice brings further challenges.
I've spoken with hundreds of Advisers over the years about running their own business and provided advice, encouragement, and tools to assist Advisers make the leap of faith.
The motivations can typically be put into a hat. Independence, control, flexibility and building an asset.
The first hurdle is engaging clients and generating revenue.
We strongly advocate 70% of an Advisers time should be spent on revenue raising activities, particularly in the early life of the business.
Fast forward 2-3 years and most have underwritten the business with some good ongoing revenue, they have good clients relationships, understand their value proposition and are enjoying the freedom and flexibility that being self-employed offered. (Albeit a few grey hairs and anxious times questioning themselves.)
So smooth sailing onward for several years with client referrals, increased revenue, sense of achievement and starting the calculate the size of the boat you'll buy at the end of this wonderful journey.
Then crunch! Very often in the 5-7 year range the self-employed Adviser hits CAPACITY....with several consequences. The Practice has not grown operationally as quickly as the client base, admin has increased, producing client reviews is backlogged, new client referrals are sandbagged, referral partners are neglected and so on.
The capacity of a single Adviser often extends to utilising a spouse or partner to assist, long hours and weekend work is required, lifestyle diminishes, and if not checked EXHAUSTION results!!
But fear not, if this journey sounds familiar there are answers.
Feel free to contact us for a confidential discussion of your circumstances.
Dugald Braithwaite
Principal | 25 Years Experience
Since 1998 Dugald has delivered Management Consulting Services to the Financial Planning Industry.
Experience extends to supporting local & international wealth management clients with executive search, strategy, board reporting and large scale project execution.