Sell an IFA business

Testimonials - CWP Financial Services Limited

The deal has allowed us to move house, be mortgage free and maintain a life style that I wanted to live and support my family. The funds I have received from AFH have exceeded my expectation. I will be forever grateful for the meeting I had with Alan Hudson.

Two and a half years down the road it has worked very well for me. I still see many of my clients who have become friends over the years’ and they have been very happy with AFH and the transition. Feedback has been positive and I am very happy that I can see friends and not feel like I have let them down.

CWP Financial Services commenced trading in 2001 as a partnership: Mr Cobb, Mr Watkins and Bob Perry.  We had all worked together previously.  Initially, we went down the network route with Financial Options/Sesame, becoming directly authorised in 2007, when we also incorporated the business.  By 2016 I was the only remaining director of CWP Financial Services Limited and sole business writer in the firm.

The reason I sold my business was due to my retirement, which happened to coincide with my wife being extremely ill.  I enjoyed the client contact but needed to spend more time with her and I found it difficult to allocate time to both my wife and clients.

One day I arrived back to my office from a hospital appointment with my wife and happened to receive a call from an acquisition broker.  I decided that it would be worth talking through my options and this led to me meeting AFH, everything moved from there.

I clicked immediately with Alan Hudson and shared similar views.  I’d like to think my honesty hit home with him.  Following the meeting I had an email outlining the terms of what was discussed and we started the due diligence process shortly after.  

We agreed a target date for completion and met it.  Never having sold a business before, I was amazed at the information that was required.  But the people I was dealing with at AFH were fantastic, there was never any pressure put on me or cross words. It was completed in a very caring and understanding manner by the acquisition team.

I felt AFH were financially secure and had the financial standing to honour the terms of the contract.  I had an offer from a local firm but was nervous about proceeding because they had no experience of acquiring other firms/businesses. I was also unsure about their ability to honour the deal should market conditions change. AFH were also offering a clean break and a 2 year deal which was very appealing to me.

I’m glad I sold to AFH and have no regrets, they have a lot of experience of dealing with acquisitions, had a process and visibility with the FCA which gave me an awful lot of confidence with AFH, allowing me to sleep at night. 

Bob Perry - CWP Financial Services Limited
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