Grau also provides advice on due diligence and custodial changes, and closes his book with a discussion of how clients should be handled through a transition.
“That’s really the last part of the process,”Grau says. “There should be a post-closing transition plan on day one that is built into the valuation process. If a seller says that they’re not going to stay and help with a transition, that should affect the value of the business. Build a professional plan, because you cannot complete a transition on a two-and-a-half page blank broker-dealer form. It’s impossible, you’re going to end up short-changing your clients.”
In researching the book, Grau looked at more than 1,500 completed transactions and drew upon FP Transitions' database containing information on more than 8,000 advisory practices throughout the U.S.