Originally published on ProfessionalAdviser
3rd February 2026
https://www.professionaladviser.com/news/4524640/preparing-sell-advisory-business-planning-comes
In his latest article for Professional Adviser, Roderic Rennison shares his insight on preparing an advisory business for sales and what comes after signing on the dotted line…
In this article, I am focusing on what could be termed the emotional aspects of the sale of a financial planning business.
Reams have been written about the actual process of the sale itself and the pitfalls to be aware of – and this aspect will be the focus of my next article – but what is often not given enough attention are the psychological impact on the shareholders/partners.
For some firm owners, the preparation will stem from a very detailed business/strategic plan that has been in place for a number of years with specified milestones and “trigger points”, for example, once the owners reach a predetermined age or level of assets, or profitability, or a combination of some or all of these. In other words, the planning is goals-based and monitored, but in our experience, a sale in these circumstances only happens in a minority of instances.
For many owners, there is an event that starts the process of wanting to sell. It can be health-related, brought about by one of the directors/partners wanting to exit, which drags in the others if there is no funding in place to buy out the departing colleague, or sometimes it is because the day-to-day management has become a chore or burdensome.
Last and not least, it may come about because of an opportunistic offer which is considered too compelling to turn down.
Whatever the trigger is, it is vital that the preparation for the ensuing sale is carefully thought through before the process starts. Here is a distillation of what we have found is important to get right, or put another way, what can lead to issues arising if they are not properly addressed.
1. Prepare a library of documents that are fully up to date. These include board meeting minutes, financial reports, compliance plans, Centralised Investment and Retirement Proposition documents, and in particular, client reviews which fully comply with Consumer Duty requirements. Ensuring that legal contracts and any share transactions are current and complete is also important.
2. Ensure that the data that you will need to provide to any acquirer is readily accessible and configurable. No back-office system is perfect, and you may need assistance in extracting detailed client data. Delays in providing data promptly can put off acquirers.
3. Select the professional advisers that you will need the main ones being an individual or firm that can help guide you through the process. Selecting a firm of solicitors that have experience of selling financial planning business is also important, and tax advice may also be required.
4. Ensure that all the directors/partners/shareholders are aligned. We have seen instances where one shareholder wants to sell but one or more of the others is less committed and may not have been fully consulted.
5. Talk about what is being proposed with your spouse/partner. It is never wise to assume that whatever you want to do will automatically be what your “other half” wants or is happy with.
In short, do not rush into a process until you have your proverbial ducks in a row and have communicated your intentions to those around you, and have obtained their buy-in.
What I have set out above is only the beginning of the process. What it is also vital to consider and try to anticipate is “life after sale.” In other words what will happen to you once the sale is completed, and what do you want to happen? The main aspects that we think, based on experience that need to be considered, are:
1. Your role in the business post-sale. Do you want to stay on, in what capacity, and is this in line with the acquirer’s thinking? Some owners are keen for sellers to depart immediately after the sale is concluded; others are much more open and indeed often keen that ex owners remain as advisers, at least for a period top help the integration process bed in.
2. What you plan to do with your time if you are leaving the business immediately post-sale? This may sound an odd point to make, but in practice, if you do not have hobbies or shared interests with your spouse/partner, you may become bored in a relatively short space of time. Even cruising and long-haul holidays may become boring.
3. Be clear what the buyer’s plans for your firm are, and if you are happy with them. Some sales turn sour because the acquirer wants to make changes that the seller is unhappy with or did not know or enquire about. This is an aspect that can be mitigated by you as the seller, or your advisers, carrying out careful reverse due diligence on the acquirer.
In our experience, failure to prepare sufficiently carefully and not thinking enough about what your life will look like after the sale of your business are two of the major contributors to subsequent regret and dissatisfaction.
It is better to defer a sale until you have clarity and agreement on the points outlined above, and a delay of even only a few months can and does make a positive difference to the outcome and the value achieved.
Feel free to email me at [email protected] if you have any questions, and my next article in the series will look at the actual mechanics of a sale and what to get right to improve the likelihood of a good outcome.
Roderic Rennison is a founding partner at Catalyst Partners