I was introduced to AFH by a Broker. I didn’t realise there was so much value in my business and I always thought my clients would just be left with my other Partners. Alan gave me some great tips and helped with the process, for which I am eternally grateful.
I started in financial services at the age of 17 with Royal Exchange and moved on to spend 22 long and happy years at Barclays Insurance Services. In my latter years, I was one of three Partners in a local IFA firm. All of us working very individually on our clients, but with shared back office support.
The relationship worked well for many years, but after 55 years in the industry, approaching retirement, it became apparent that the other Partners didn’t have the capacity to take on more clients, so I needed to consider my options.
I had grown my business over the years and had a client bank of 160 individuals, which became demanding on my time. My main concern was that I found a new local home for the clients and a business who I felt comfortable with and would allow me to achieve the desired outcome that my clients would be looked after long after my retirement.
Having spoken to a few people who suggested that I met with Alan Hudson at AFH, we met initially in 2016. It became clear very early on, that it would be difficult to extract my clients seamlessly from the existing structure and I needed to simplify my arrangement which would allow me to transfer my clients.
For 12 months I worked on getting my business into a position that I could transfer to another firm. It was a lot of hard work to extract myself from the previous partnership, but Alan Hudson was very supportive and helped to make it a straight forward process.
What I liked about AFH was that it was a local firm with a wide geographical spread of advisers who could take over the client relationships. I felt reassured that I didn’t have to worry about my clients.
Alan agreed a deal which I felt was fair and the process sounded straight forward. The due diligence process was relatively straight forward and was dealt with very efficiently by Claire Spillane, Acquisitions Manager and her team.
I have continued to be very impressed with the service offered by the Management team at AFH and since completion, I receive regular updates on my income position from Anne-Marie Brown so I can keep a track of future consideration payments.
In the main my clients are very happy with their new adviser and I feel it’s been a good deal.
My advice to anyone looking to retire from the industry would be that having all your ducks in a row, with a robust, accurate data base, will save you a lot of time in the long run.