Advisor Resources

As an advisor in today’s fast moving marketplace, it can be difficult deciding what business model and platform allow you to offer your clients the best value proposition while running a profitable and efficient business. As you advise your clients, ask yourself, who is advising you? Working with our strategic relationships, RFW Wealth Advisors offers advisors and small financial services firms in the southeast a consultative relationship in order to help you better execute on your business vision or exit strategy.

With the credit collapse of 2008 and the resulting “Too Big to Fail” status that many large financial institutions found themselves in, many advisors working for the large wire houses and captive hybrid models have been leaving to start up their own firms like we did in February 2009. Some are also changing broker dealer firms due to a lack of a competitive products or objective platform. For advisors that are considering such a move, we work with them to evaluate the various business structures and platforms available in the independent advisor space. Typical questions we help transitioning advisors answer include:

• Do I want to set up my business as an RIA, register with a Broker Dealer, or run a hybrid model?
  
• How do I evaluate which Broker Dealer may suit my business model?
  
• Who should we consider to custody our clients’ assets?
  
• How do I evaluate compliance choices for my business?
  
• How do I establish my insurance business platform?
  
• How do I recreate my technology? (Ex- CRM, trading platform, performance reporting software, planning & analytic tools)
  
• How do I evaluate compensation & transition packages while leveraging my practice’s scale?
  
• What legal and regulatory issues do I need to understand?
  
• How do I manage the transition process?
  
• How do I create a marketing plan for my new financial services company?
  

While many advisors are on the move, CPA practices, regional & community banks, insurance agents, and other financial services firms are looking to evaluate and/or diversify their business revenues by offering additional services to their clients. In some cases, these businesses are also scaling back to focus on more core business models. In either case, we can help advisors evaluate and implement the necessary changes to grow their business or sell a business unit which they are looking to exit. We can help these businesses with many issues including the following:

• Overall evaluation of their goals and how they fit into the current marketplace.
  
• Evaluate & introduce firms to financial services platform providers.
  
• Evaluate & introduce firms to independent financial professionals.
  
• Advise firms on compliance and OSJ functions as well as industry and regulatory trends.
  
• Design business valuation and exit strategies.
  

After a career of building a business and a loyal client base, implementing an exit strategy or retirement plan for your own financial services business can be very challenging as it is a unique transaction. Typically the most valuable succession plans involve a transitional process over a number of years. We advise individual advisors and smaller firms on many exit strategy issues including the following:

• What is the value of my practice?
  
• What is important when designing and implementing a succession plan?
  
• How do I implement a buy/sell agreement?
  
• How do I find the right buyer for my financial services business?
  
• What if my buyer is not currently with my broker dealer?
  
• What are the financing options for the buyer of my practice?
  
• How do I protect myself during a practice transition?
  
• How do I protect the value of my practice for my heirs?
  

We partner with independent regional financial services recruiting consultants and accredited business valuation experts in delivering these services. If you would like to interview one of our senior partners for consideration to be your business’ advisory team, we are pleased to offer a complimentary initial consultation. In this meeting, we can learn more about what your business’ goals are, and you can learn more about how we could help you accomplish them. Please feel free to call our offices at 904-517-5400 or email us at creuschle@rfwwealthadvisors.com to schedule an appointment today.