Why did you get into this business? What do you hope to leave behind?
Financial advisors ask their clients these questions all the time, in the context of setting financial goals or establishing estate plans. It’s gratifying to see more advisors asking these questions to themselves, about their own work.
Over the years, we have watched the independent advice channel mature as a group of professionals. There are more people who understand the business side of the equation. They understand where their growth comes from, and where the right investments in tools and talent will reap rewards later.
The astute advisors do this before the need is forced on them.
Without the right succession plan in place, advisors have to make tough decisions. They sell their businesses for the best valuation they can manage, and often leave the deal table with the nagging feeling that they have not appreciated the true value of the practice they created. They aren’t entirely confident that the client relations will survive intact. They worry the team of professionals they assembled will not have great incentives to stick around and earn their own success after the exit.
It’s not a good feeling. If you pay attention to M&A news, you might start to wonder if that’s all there is now – that we’re all headed to the deal table because principals struggle to align on their succession strategies, because organic growth is too hard. It can seem like the only way to expand in this business is to make all the big numbers bigger in the short term, and cash out.
We believe there’s another way. It is possible to plan for your own future in a way that gives you control, preserves the client relationships you worked so hard to cultivate, and positions your team to carry on your legacy and continue their own growth as professionals.
And it excites us to speak with so many advisors who feel the way we do.
We’re talking about advisors who got into the business because they want to help their clients, to the best of their ability. These are folks who know those client relationships are the absolute bedrock of their business growth and long-term success. They want to invest in long-term succession and career paths for the whole office, because they serve multigenerational families, entrepreneurs and institutions who all count on a continuity of high-quality service from their advisors.
These are the advisors we want to talk to. This is exactly why we started Indivisible Partners.
Why cash out now, when there is so much more that can be done?
You spent your professional life building lasting relationships. You want a business that will last too, one that you can pass down to the next generation of professionals, serving the next generation of clients. Growth is important to you, but short-term bumps in AUM pale in comparison to what you could achieve later on by putting real sweat equity into your business.
When we talk about growth here, we mean qualitative growth, too. Success, to us, looks like more than just doing more of what you already do. Growth should unlock more capabilities: a broader range of services offered to clients, more clear career paths for everyone on the team.
We also think the advisor deserves authorship in selecting the capabilities and determining how they are used. You know what your clients need, and what information is the most valuable to them. The technology you use should allow you to work with your client, on an individual level, to collaborate and determine the next steps that matter most.
We have a very clear vision in mind, and we are very intentional in how we structured Indivisible to support that vision.
Our partners gain revenue from their service as individual businesses, and from their shared investment in Indivisible. There is a material incentive to align, and grow, and succeed as a group over the long haul.
For our part, what you see is what you get. We’re proud of the talent and tenure we brought together to form Indivisible Partners. We are at your disposal. There is no outside money or obligation to contribute to someone else’s portfolio of private assets. Our sole focus is to support our partners by sharing everything we’ve learned, every connection we have made, and every operational advantage we can secure on their behalf – with full transparency to everything.
We don’t think anyone would have batted an eye if our team wanted to take the easy road. But we feel like there is still work to be done. We feel like we’re just getting started, and even greater things await when we put in the work.
