Brodeski says one of his clients yesterday asked him if they had to leverage to the hilt to make this deal happen. "I said, 'no, we don't owe a penny.'"

Re-energized
Savant Capital believes its new corporate structure will boost its efficiency and effectiveness. "We've put together a board of managers that's an active board that oversees the firm's performance so that it looks like a public corporation," Kautt says.

"So it's not only about the synergies we bring to the table," he continues, "but we all agreed we'd use a different business model that hasn't been used in our industry--at least not that we're aware of--that'll bring sophisticated general management and oversight that exists in major corporations."

Brodeski says they created a governance and ownership structure that should allow it to eventually broaden the ownership base.

Add it all up, Savant executives say, and they're juiced about the new firm's future.
"Nobody is walking away from these businesses," says Muldowney, 59. He adds that he and Kautt are, on paper at least, at an age when many advisors think about retiring. Instead, he says, "there's a bigger opportunity than I ever thought. This is a re-energizing of the advisory field that the aggregators or the internal sales just can't do."

"We put a plan in place for our own succession, but a key part of the plan is all of us being around for the long run," Muldowney says. "We also created a platform not just for the next generation within our respective firms, but which will be intriguing for other firms who might chose to tuck in or join with us over time."

Despite their long-time association and close ties, the two firms brought in two outside advisors to seal the deal. One was John Furey, principal at the Phoenix-based consultant Advisor Growth Strategies LLC, who is credited with being the facilitator who cut through the emotions and laid out the foundation to make it work. The other was David Selig, CEO of Advice Dynamics Partners, an M&A advisor in Mill Valley, Calif. who had worked with Savant previously and on this deal advised both firms on potential pot holes and solutions. He believes this could ultimately be the largest RIA/RIA combination of 2012.

"This is an important transaction where two very strong businesses have come together," Selig says. "Typically with M&A deals, one side needs the other because they're trying to solve a problem or fill a hole. In this deal, both firms have strong leadership and growth histories. They don't have any major problems between them, so there's nothing driving this other than a shared vision for creating something better. And that's pretty unique."

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