Clients who deal only with you
How to hand over the households who have never dealt with anyone else at the firm.
How to hand over the households who have never dealt with anyone else at the firm.
List the clients who ring your mobile, ask for you by name when they call the office, and have never had a review without you in the room. Some have been with you for twenty years. They are the clients most likely to leave when you do, and the ones you will find hardest to hand over.
A buyer pays now for income that arrives over years. If a household stays because of you, its fees leave when you do. A buyer who sees a group of large households tied to the principal will either lower the price or defer more of it until after those clients have been retained.
These clients also carry risk for themselves. If you were ill tomorrow, they would be dealing with a firm they do not know, at a time they had not prepared for. Planning for that is part of the duty you owe them.
For each household paying an ongoing fee, record whether anyone else at the firm has met them, spoken to them on the phone, or written to them in their own name. Then sort by the size of the fee.
Start with the households at the top of that list that have only your name against them. For a firm in the £25m–£100m band, that list can run to dozens.
Clients come to trust a new adviser through repeated contact over time. A letter of introduction on its own does not do this. A client who has sat in three meetings with a new adviser, seen that person understand their situation, and watched you defer to them, is more likely to stay.
Start by bringing a colleague into the next review as a matter of routine. Introduce them by their role. Ask them to prepare part of the review and present it. Have them send the follow-up letter in their own name. Do the same at the review after that.
Expect direct questions, and answer them directly.
In some long-standing households, the relationship is with one partner. The other attends meetings and leaves the decisions to their partner. If the partner you deal with dies first, the surviving partner will be dealing with the firm at a difficult time, possibly with somebody they barely know.
Make sure both partners know the colleague who will look after them. Ask whether the client would like their adult children to meet the firm too. Children who know the adviser are more likely to keep the family's money with the firm when it passes to them, and more likely to call the firm when a parent needs help.
Ask these clients what they value about the service. Some value being able to ring you directly. Some value the annual meeting at their home. Some value that you remember their grandchildren's names. Write the answers on the file. The next adviser can keep the things that matter to each client, and the client will notice that they have.
Some clients will move when you stop, whatever you do. Some will want to follow you if you continue to advise elsewhere. Some will decide that this is the moment to stop paying for advice. Know who they are early, so the valuation and your plans reflect it.
Under Securo the handover comes before the sale. Clients meet the adviser who will look after them next while you are still at the firm, at the pace you set. The usual pattern is three meetings over about a year: one you lead, one the new adviser leads with you present, and one where you call in. For the clients who only trust you, start that sequence first and allow the most time for it.
Of everything a principal does, the research and report writing is the easiest to hand to somebody else, and handing it over frees the time the rest of the exit needs.
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After completion, a buyer's integration team moves clients, data, fees and staff onto its own systems. Ask to see that plan before you sign.
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When a younger adviser in your firm asks to buy it, the conversation is about funding, timing and the price, and it needs to be held carefully.
Read itSteven 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.