This week we have agreed 3 different deals with 3 different Financial Advice firms and they all have one thing in common

This week we have agreed 3 different deals with 3 different Financial Advice firms and they all have one thing in common:

The first is an IFA who is hanging up his hat and retiring and has agreed on a sale to another independent firm.

The second IFA is really successful, isn’t retiring but is working 65-hour weeks at the moment. He’s realised that one-third of his clients generate two-thirds of his income so he has decided to sell the lower two-thirds in return for a significant cash event. This enables him to dedicate more time to his top clients.

The last IFA is retiring but has a spread of different business types after 20 years of trading. In this case, we have divided the sale into two separate parts and to two different buyers.

So, what did they have in common?

The IFAs cannot lay their hands on the client information buyers need for their due diligence easily.

This isn’t necessarily because they are disorganised, it’s just that most people have offered a variety of products and services and used multiple platforms, spreadsheets and CRMs over the years in order to try and effectively manage their clients. Attempting to collate everything in the format that a purchaser requires can be tricky.

Even if you aren’t thinking of selling your business today it makes sense to have a secure, central business register of your clients and a list of any and all products and policies you have sold in a universal format that works. We call this “preparing your business for sale”.

Platforms, CRMs and Systems are not 100% reliable.

In a recent sale, we found £15,000 per annum of trail fees from clients that hadn’t been paid in 3 years due to a platform update. That’s £45,000 of unpaid income and was £120,000 of sale value in this case.

You wouldn’t trust the person buying something to place a value on it.

Your business should be one of your largest assets so surely it makes sense for you to be able to see exactly what you have in order for you to value it easily.

Time kills deals.

If something is to happen in your business or your life where you decide that you want to generate some time or money from selling some or all of your business, often these deals can be time-critical (especially in turbulent times) so it’s just good practice to have the information you need at your fingertips.