Added on March 2014 in M&A Issues
1 visitor like this article | Viewed 4786 times | 0 comment
Summary: When advisors think about growing their business and building scale, an inevitable underpinning of the strategy is either deploying a recruiting campaign to attract advisors with a book of business, or trying to develop a functional M&A plan to merge with or buy another independent advisor. There is something intriguing about this phenomenon: most independent advisors fail to realize that many of their peers want to do the exact same thing!
Added on March 2014 in M&A Issues
1 visitor like this article | Viewed 4895 times | 0 comment
Summary: As more and more Baby-Boom-vintage advisory firms come up for sale or succession these days, the question of valuation is a recurrent theme. There are many methods to value a “small business” such as independent advisory firms—discounted cashflow, a multiple of earnings, a percentage of client AUM, etc.—but revenue multiples get little respect these days.
Added on March 2014 in M&A Issues
1 visitor like this article | Viewed 4617 times | 0 comment
Summary: More than a decade of pitching mutual funds and annuities to financial advisers convinced G.C. Lewis of two things: He wanted to become an adviser himself, and building one from nothing would be a huge challenge."It's very difficult today to start a financial-advisory practice from scratch," says Mr. Lewis. "The old days of cold calling don't work nearly as well...Today, more investors are looking to find advisers through referrals."
Added on March 2014 in M&A Issues
1 visitor like this article | Viewed 4429 times | 0 comment
Summary: Sandy Johnson's best business decision was to participate in an Ameriprise Financial Inc. experiment 20 years ago that brought individual advisers together to operate as a group practice. Today, her Proviant Group boasts operational efficiencies that would turn both smaller and larger firms green with envy
Added on March 2014 in M&A Issues
1 visitor like this article | Viewed 4601 times | 0 comment
Summary: In a study of 140 senior executives, Fidelity Institutional found that more than half (55%) expect to boost revenue from their wealth management practices 25% or more in the next five years. Nearly one-third (31%)— those having made the most progress in developing their wealth management businesses and identified in the report as “pacesetters”—anticipate that wealth management will contribute 35% to total bank revenue in five years’ time.
