I finally retired in February 2020 which meant all my clients passed to other AFH Advisers. It was a little sad to have to let go and not without a small concern around how well my clients would settle down with their new Advisers. In the event, a year on, such concerns evaporated. Only one now ex-client contacted me to ask to change Adviser because he felt their personalities did not match. I notified Alan Hudson and within an hour a new Adviser was appointed with no fuss or difficulty. This was very good to see.
When the time came to sell the business of Taylor Frost Wealth Management in early 2017, it was of overriding importance to us to do all we could to find a buyer who would be a good fit in continuing to look after our clients. We had meetings with a total of 5 potential acquisitors and from these AFH Wealth Management naturally emerged as meeting all of our requirements.
Our clientele consisted of doctors and dentists with significant wealth and complex portfolios. This included the ability to be able to continue to advise such clients on the EIS, SEIS, VCT and Business Relief aspects of their portfolios. This simple requirement knocked out two potential suitors not able to advise clients in these areas. The second requirement was not to be compelled to move the wealth of clients into the fund management services favoured by the acquiring company. This reduced the shortlist to just one of all those we talked to, this being AFH Wealth Management led by Alan Hudson.
Holding a lifelong tenet of trusting first impressions, all those related to Alan were very positive. I found that everything he said at pre-acquisition was honoured to the letter post acquisition. This included being able to only use AFH Discretionary Portfolio Services where I could clearly see a strong benefit to clients in terms of cost savings and service proposition for making changes.
AFH’s abolition of platform charges for clients has been an enormous confidence booster too. The ability to discuss strategies around individual client portfolios and financial planning has also been a great resource to tap into.
The first 6 months was a learning curve but, overall, in the 3 year earn out period of the acquisition I was able to settle my clients well into the AFH system of operating and now go into retirement feeling very pleased that they are in good hands.
Needless to say I was able to agree an attractive acquisition value too!