As we announce our latest co-written white paper, we thought we would first share some background research and history put into this particular M&A thought leadership piece. While this is the first time we have formally partnered with another industry leader in writing a joint paper, Mergers & Acquisitions is hardly a new topic of discussion for us within the RIA space.
We were first nominated and selected as a finalist in June 2016 for a WealthManagement.com Industry Award for our M&A Support services. In September of that year, we authored Becoming a Professional Buyer: How to Harness RIA M&A Strategies for Growth, a first-of-its-kind industry research piece focusing on the operational aspects of M&A, highlighting five successful RIA M&A buyers. In it, we detailed 7 critical steps to becoming a Professional Buyer, and in October 2017, we dove a little deeper into the advisor pitch that RIA Buyers should use when attempting to attract like-minded Sellers.
In April 2018, we wrote Part II to our original M&A white paper, featuring five more RIA Professional Buyers, and were announced as a finalist for another WealthManagement.com Industry Award for our research and findings later that year.
That history aside, this most recent white paper is the latest iteration in stressing the importance of advisors further defining their brand and identity as a Professional Buyer. With DeSola Group, we have outlined 5 building blocks RIAs need to truly become a Successful Buyer:
- Buyer Brand
- Specific Advisor Pitch
- Onboarding Plan
- Client Messaging & Communications
- Post-Merger Integration process for clients and employees
We hope to continue to provide educational content in this ever-important subject matter as the industry further progresses into an era of consolidation. As always, we welcome your reactions and feedback, and hope you enjoy our latest white paper, Capitalizing on RIA Consolidation: Branding Yourself a Successful Buyer.