The machine works, and we have lost the responsibility of running the company, managing staff and getting caught up in the mundane PI/compliance functions. We are now enjoying giving the clients a far better service and generally have been freed up to do what we enjoy doing. We’re in a good place and have happy clients.
Parker Sage Limited was a Directly authorised Firm established in 2005. The business was run by three Directors, each having individual responsibility for the day to day running of the practice from PI, Compliance, Recruitment and managing the staff, all of which all took away from the day job, spending less than 40% of our time with clients.
We decided that we wanted to focus on our clients and set out to find a new home for us, our clients and our Employees.
We met with Alan Hudson and felt AFH would be a good fit for us all. There were much better deals on the table and we could have achieved a lot more money, but it wasn’t just money, we needed to believe in the proposition. We liked what we heard about the AFH proposition and in the round, Alan offered us a fair deal.
The process was very quick, taking two months from starting the due diligence to completion on the 31st May 2017. The business never had any complaints, it was very clean, so the process was simple. The deal didn’t change at any time during the due diligence process, except in our favour! Solicitors were trying to put some other terms and clauses into the contract, but Alan Hudson stepped in and relented on clauses to be reasonable. We found Alan to be very fair throughout the process.
The first two years were very difficult. Three and a half years on we’re glad we’ve done it, while we had the energy, and everything is going well for us and our clients.
The AFH Investment proposition is very powerful. The country was going through Brexit at the time our deal concluded and there was a lot of stock market volatility. The benefits of the centralised investment team and regular client updates during this period, demonstrated why we had chosen AFH. Having only been able to offer an advisory service previously, the discretionary service worked well for our clients and allowed the investment team to act swiftly in a moving market. It was and still is an easy sell, having a dedicated resource managing the portfolios on a daily basis and being able to reduce our clients’ charges, by the removal of the platform costs, represents a clear benefit which is recognised by our clients.
Everyone at AFH is a nice person trying their hardest for you. They have a willingness to support us and with the help received from the Senior Management and wider AFH team, we exceeded our targets and achieved both the 2nd and 3rd payments in full.