Welcome everybody! Welcome to the 393rd episode of the Monetary Advisor Success Podcast!
My visitor on as we speak’s podcast is Alex Lewis. Alex is the proprietor of Blackbridge Monetary, a hybrid advisory agency based mostly in Irmo, South Carolina, that oversees roughly $330 million in belongings underneath administration for 415 consumer households.
What’s distinctive about Alex, although, is how, at age 29, he took on a multi-million-dollar mortgage to buy the agency from its founder as his successor, and, within the 4 years since, has made adjustments to all the pieces from the workers to the know-how to the service construction to make the enterprise what he needed it to be… and within the course of, almost doubled the agency’s AUM.
On this episode, we discuss in-depth about how Alex gained the belief of his agency’s founder and its purchasers by steadily growing his client-facing obligations over a span of 4 years prematurely of a possible succession, how Alex and the agency’s founder negotiated a valuation and transaction phrases with a seller-financed observe with protecting covenants that met the wants of each events, and the way Alex received comfy with a purchase order whose first month-to-month mortgage cost was larger than his total annual wage the 12 months earlier than the acquisition and resulted in a internet revenue of simply $11 within the 1st 12 months after the deal (however finally grew sufficient that he was in a position to refinance his succession mortgage to make the previous proprietor entire and scale back the month-to-month cost).
We additionally speak about how Alex’s agency now segments purchasers into 5 service tiers based mostly on their belongings underneath administration and income (and the precise variations in providers the agency supplies to purchasers at every stage), how Alex tracks his purchasers’ particular person preferences to create what he calls “Wow Components”, such having their favourite soda on the desk after they arrive for a gathering, which strengthens the connection between purchasers and the advisory group, and the way Alex, shortly after taking up the agency, made the choice to rent 2 new advisors and assist them by means of getting their CFP marks to have the ability to proceed to supply high-touch providers for his quickly rising consumer base and guarantee they keep underneath 150 purchasers per advisor.
And make certain to take heed to the top, the place Alex discusses how he first entered the monetary planning trade, transitioning from the world of public accounting to hunt higher work-life stability however taking a more-than-50% pay reduce to get his foot within the door, how Alex managed to not lose a single consumer after being pressured to name all 400 purchasers to allow them to know he needed to increase their charges after a service supplier dramatically elevated its personal pricing to Alex’s agency… solely to cancel the price enhance after the service supplier reversed course (and the way that motion in flip constructed much more belief along with his purchasers), and the way Alex dug right into a sequence of enterprise books to establish finest practices to systematize his personal agency’s operations, from Gino Wickman’s “Traction” to Matthew Jarvis’ “Delivering Huge Worth”, as he continues to evolve the enterprise he purchased from its prior proprietor into the one which he needs it to be for himself.
So, whether or not you are interested by studying about navigating an inner succession plan, dealing with the monetary realities of taking over debt to buy the agency, or making a plan to develop the agency and its workers after taking up, then we hope you get pleasure from this episode of the Monetary Advisor Success podcast, with Alex Lewis.
