An adviser reading a client file

Guides for advisers planning succession

Guides on valuation, the client file, due diligence, telling your clients and your team, your own pension and tax, and the questions to ask any buyer.

Where tax decides the answer, take advice from your accountant.

9 min read

What your practice is worth

How a buyer values the ongoing advice fees of your firm, and what reduces that value.

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8 min read

Getting the file ready, eighteen months out

The order in which to bring client files up to date in the eighteen months before a sale.

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7 min read

Consumer Duty and the client you have not reviewed

Under Consumer Duty, a firm has to show what each client’s ongoing fee pays for.

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8 min read

Telling your clients you are stepping back

When to tell clients, what to say, and how the timing affects whether they stay.

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6 min read

Telling your team

When and how to tell your staff about succession plans, and what to agree about their positions.

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7 min read

Directly authorised or under a network

How succession options differ for directly authorised firms and for appointed representatives of a network.

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8 min read

What due diligence looks at

The documents and records a buyer asks for, and how to have them ready before the request arrives.

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5 min read

Novation, explained

What novation means for a client, and why Securo writes it into the arrangement from the start.

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8 min read

Building a client base somebody else can run

How to reduce owner dependency, which lowers a valuation and can be reduced with one to three years of work.

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7 min read

The questions to ask any buyer, including us

Fifteen questions about your clients, the transaction and the buying firm.

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8 min read

The step-back timeline year by year

From the first private decision to the year after the exit, set out year by year, with what to do in each and what can wait.

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8 min read

Evidencing ongoing service and fees before a transition

Before a sale or handover, each ongoing fee needs a record showing what the client agreed to, what they received, and that the price is fair.

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8 min read

Your own pension and tax as you exit

How the money gets from the firm to you, and then to your family, as the rules stand in October 2026. A description of the rules for your own adviser to apply.

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8 min read

Staff transfers under TUPE in a small advice firm

When a business changes hands, employment law can move your staff to the new owner on their existing terms. How it works, and what you have to do.

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Tools for your own firm

Put an indicative range on the value of your advice business, and score how much of the business would still run without you.

Two senior advisers reviewing papers

Talk to Steven Bates about Securo

Steven Bates, Director of Advisory at Equity & General, takes the first call with every adviser. Ring him on 020 8396 0486 or send a short note about your firm.