Financial planner sellers return to the market

Practice sale registrations up

By Wouter Klijn
Fri 02 Oct 2009

Financial planning practice sales are on the cards again.

Financial planners are offering their practices for sale again after months of standing on the sidelines.

Radar Results has seen an increase of 50 per cent in the number of business that have approached the firm for a sale since the beginning of this year.

"We had 42 practices for sale in January and now have 63 serious sellers," Radar Results principal John Birt said.

Radar Results expects nearly 100 practices to be purchased by Radar clients during 2010.

It's not just single practices that are increasingly looking to sell, Birt said.

"Independent [dealer groups] might be looking at being swallowed up by someone larger," he said.

He is currently working on transactions with three dealer groups, ranging in size from eight to 50 offices.

Kenyon Prendeville had 12 businesses registering for a sale over the last five weeks.

"We've never had as many things happening as we currently do, which is in great contrast to where we were earlier this year," Kenyon Prendeville principal Stephen Prendeville told InvestorDaily.

The firm advises on average on about 20 to 30 transactions a year, but the firm is currently on track to close about 30 to 40 deals this year, Prendeville said.

"There were no transactions being done in the marketplace from November through to May," he said. "I think that created an overhang."

He also said potential legislative changes has prompted a number of people to bring forward their exit strategies.

Financial planners are also keener to sell part of their business, Centurion Market Makers director Wayne Marsh said.

"In the last 12 weeks we've had a lot of inquiries about the sale of minority interests," he said.

These types of transactions currently make up a third of the firm's revenues, Marsh said.

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