The Authoritative M&A Guide for Financial Advisors
Buying, Selling, & Valuing Financial Practices shows you how to complete a sale or acquisition of a financial advisory practice and have both the buyer and seller walk away with the best possible terms. From the first pages of this unique book, buyers and sellers and merger partners will find detailed information that separately addresses each of their needs, issues and concerns.
From bestselling author and industry influencer David Grau Sr. JD, this masterful guide takes you from the important basics of valuation to the finer points of deal structuring, due diligence, and legal matters, with a depth of coverage and strategic guidance that puts you in another league when you enter the M&A space. Complete with valuable tools, worksheets, and checklists on a companion website, no other resource enables you to:
* Master the concepts of value and valuation and take this issue "off the table" early in the negotiation process
* Utilize advanced deal structuring techniques including seller and bank financing strategies
* Understand how to acquire a book, practice or business based on how it was built, and what it is capable of delivering in the years to come
* Navigate the complexities of this highly-regulated profession to achieve consistently great results whether buying, selling, or merging
Buying, Selling, & Valuing Financial Practices will ensure that you manage your M&A transaction properly and professionally, aided with the most powerful set of tools available anywhere in the industry, all designed to create a transaction where everyone wins--buyer, seller, and clients.
Autorentext
DAVID GRAU SR., JD, is the founder and president of FP Transitions, the preeminent consulting firm known as much for building sustainable businesses as selling or merging them at the end of a career. FP Transitions has valued over 8,000 financial services or advisory practices and businesses, and consulted on over 1,500 completed third-party transactions. Grau Sr. previously authored the bestselling Succession Planning for Financial Advisors: Building an Enduring Business, also published by Wiley. He has written 90 nationally published articles, white papers, and manuals on complex succession strategies, equity management, business continuity, income-perpetuation plans, and mergers and acquisitions. Grau Sr. was named one of the most influential people in the profession in an industry survey by Financial Planning magazine and is a nationally recognized expert on succession planning and business-perpetuation strategies in the financial services industry.
Zusammenfassung
The Authoritative M&A Guide for Financial Advisors
Buying, Selling, & Valuing Financial Practices shows you how to complete a sale or acquisition of a financial advisory practice and have both the buyer and seller walk away with the best possible terms. From the first pages of this unique book, buyers and sellers and merger partners will find detailed information that separately addresses each of their needs, issues and concerns.
From bestselling author and industry influencer David Grau Sr. JD, this masterful guide takes you from the important basics of valuation to the finer points of deal structuring, due diligence, and legal matters, with a depth of coverage and strategic guidance that puts you in another league when you enter the M&A space. Complete with valuable tools, worksheets, and checklists on a companion website, no other resource enables you to:
- Master the concepts of value and valuation and take this issue off the table early in the negotiation process
- Utilize advanced deal structuring techniques including seller and bank financing strategies
- Understand how to acquire a book, practice or business based on how it was built, and what it is capable of delivering in the years to come
- Navigate the complexities of this highly-regulated profession to achieve consistently great results whether buying, selling, or merging
Buying, Selling, & Valuing Financial Practices will ensure that you manage your M&A transaction properly and professionally, aided with the most powerful set of tools available anywhere in the industry, all designed to create a transaction where everyone winsbuyer, seller, and clients.
Inhalt
Foreword xi
Preface xv
For Sellers xv
For Buyers xvi
Acknowledgments xix
Chapter 1 The Basics You Need to Know 1
Avoiding the Critical Mistakes 1
Valuation: The Great Debate 4
Assessing What You Have Built (or Are Acquiring) 6
Who is Selling? Transition Strategies by Ownership Level 11
Overcoming Attrition: Public Enemy No. 1 14
What is Being Sold? 17
Organizing the Marketplace 20
Exit Plans versus Succession Plans versus Continuity Plans 23
The Planning Continuum 28
Chapter 2 Value and Valuation Fundamentals 31
An Overview 31
What Creates Value? 33
Standards of Value 35
Valuation Approaches and Methods 38
The Rule of Thumb Method of Valuation 46
Application of Standards and Approaches 48
Making Sense of It All 51
Who is Qualified? (to Offer an Opinion of Value) 53
Valuations for Bank Financing 54
Chapter 3 Solving Valuation 57
The Blue Book Standard 57
Lessons Learned 58
A Value Calculation 60
How It Works 61
Recurring versus Nonrecurring Revenue 65
Assessing Transition Risk 66
Measuring Cash Flow Quality 68
Fixing the Fracture Lines 69
The Profitability Issue 71
Chapter 4 Building and Preserving Value toward the End of Your Career 75
1. Get a Position Fix 77
2. Focus on the M in M&A 78
3. Obtain a Formal, Third-Party Valuation 79
4. Understand the Impact of Terms and Taxes on Value 80
5. Consider Alternative Strategies: Sell and Stay Opportunities 81
6. Study Reliable Benchmarking Data 84
7. Create a Plan and a Definitive Timeline 85
8. Have a Backup Plan 86
9. Sell on the Way Up! 87
10. Focus on You 88
Chapter 5 Preparing to Sell 91
What's Your Plan? 92
Finding the Very Best Match 95
When to Sell: Timing That Final Step 98
In a Nutshell: How to Sell Your Book, Practice, or Business 101
The Listing Process 107
Making a Quick Decision to Sell 112
When Selling Isn't Selling 113
Ten Things Buyers Will Want to Know 115
Handling Key Employees during the Selling/Listing Process 116
Letting Go 118
Chapter 6 The Buyer's Perspective 119
A New Direction 119
If at First You Don't Succeed . . . 121
Build a Base for Acquisition 122
What Sellers Will Want to Know 124
Understanding the Audition Process 126
Are You a Buyer or a Prospect? 133
Nontraditional Acquisition Strategies 134
Chapter 7 Deal Structuring: Payment Terms, Taxes, and Financing 143
Seller Financing 144
The Shared-Risk/Shared-Reward Concept 145
Performance-Based Promissory Notes 147
Earn-Out Arrangements 148
Revenue Sharing or Fee Splitting Arrangements 151
Earnest-Money Deposits 152
Down Payments 153
Basic Tax Strategies 154
Installment Sales 156
Asset-Based Sales/Acquisitions 157
Stock-Based Sales/Acquisitions 161
Bank Financing 164
The Mechanics of the Process 166
Blending Seller and Bank Financing Together 169
Acceleration Options 170
Working Capital Loans 171
Chapter 8 Due Diligence and Documentation 175
Co…