Merger - Case Study

Approached – October 2014

Continuity Plan Placed – January 2015

Agreement Placed – October 2015

Transaction – January 2016

Payout Period – 3 Years

We approached the advisor in October of 2014 with the idea that she would maybe want to move out of the business in the next 5 years or so. Initially, she hadn’t given much thought to the idea of retiring but would keep us in mind. By the following January, she came back to us and said she had given it some thought and wanted to be retired at the age of 65. We put the continuity plan in place with the idea of having the formal agreement completed in October. We had her send an initial letter out to her clients announcing she was going to partner with a new group later that year and she was starting the 4-year transition out of the business.

In October of 2015, we signed the final agreement to move the practice over to us the coming January, but that she would be staying on as a “Legacy” Advisor. We had a letter sent out from us in October informing her clients that they would start to see our names on her statements as we worked jointly together. In January, we sent another letter announcing we would be doing joint meetings together and looking forward to meeting them soon. We spent the whole year of 2016 having joint meetings with her clients and replicating her process with them. About mid-way through 2017, the advisor decided she didn’t really need to go on many more of the meetings. In December of 2018, we formally announced her retirement and the response from her clients was congratulatory.

Working together and gradually easing her out of the business allowed for a smooth and natural transition for her clients. By the time we formally announced her retirement, most of them had not met with her for over a year, and they felt like our clients. The advisor was able to seamlessly move into a new phase of her life with her husband, and we had fully integrated her clients into our practice.