Employment Agreements: The 10 Most Commonly Asked Questions
Overview This resource is designed to help financial services business owners navigate one of the most important, but often overlooked, aspects of running a firm: employment agreements. In this practical FAQ guide, SRG answers the ten most common questions about creating, implementing, and maintaining Employee and Contractor Agreements, drawing on decades of industry-specific experience. You’ll learn the key benefits of written agreements, how to avoid worker misclassification, how often agreements should be updated, and how to structure them to protect your firm while supporting staff growth. The guide also covers best practices for incorporating compensation terms, equity grants, non-solicitation provisions, and role descriptions, ensuring compliance and clarity for both employers and employees Created by SRG’s Director of Strategic Organizational Planning, Julia Sexton, CVA®, this guide distills years of hands-on experience helping firms design agreements that retain top talent, minimize risk, and safeguard long-term business value. DOWNLOAD NOW
Contingency Agreement Types: Protect What Matters Most
Secure Continuity, No Matter What. Overview Contingency planning at SRG is a proactive service designed for business owners who want to (and should want to) protect their firm and clients in the event of a triggering event (e.g., death, disability, or incapacity). These services help ensure business continuity by creating a customized transition or sale plan that outlines what will happen and who will take over. At Succession Resource Group, our team helps you choose the key features and details of a contingency plan to create a realistic and achievable contingency plan for your team, clients, and family, as well as the most appropriate type of agreement to achieve your unique goals. This article explains what contingency agreements you might consider implementing. Most Common Agreement Types Buy-Sell Agreement (One Way) Nature: A contractual obligation to purchase / sell upon a triggering event (e.g., death, disability, or incapacity). The contingency agreement itself does not represent the purchase / sale documentation; however, it defines who, when, at what price, and what terms the purchase will occur. Purpose: Ensures commitment and prioritization without finalizing a sale. Best For: Business owners who want a transition plan to protect their clients and business value with minimal disruption, and who have a willing buyer to name in such an agreement. Reciprocal Buy-Sell Agreement Nature: A mutual agreement where two firms (or individuals) agree to buy each other’s business if a triggering event (e.g., death, disability, or incapacity) occurs in either. Purpose: Provides peace of mind and shared protection between similarly situated firms. Reciprocal buy-sell agreements ensure commitment and prioritization without finalizing a sale. Best For: Business owners who have a mutual agreement to the terms of a transition plan to protect their clients and business value with minimal disruption. Retainer Agreement Nature: A service arrangement between the business owner(s) and Succession Resource Group (SRG), where SRG is contractually obligated to find a suitable buyer in the event of a triggering event (e.g., death, disability, or incapacity) to purchase your business. Purpose: Provides peace of mind to business owners who don’t have a contingency partner identified, but want to ensure their clients and business will be protected with minimal disruption. Best For: Business owners who want a backup plan with minimal disruption but don’t have a willing buyer to name in such a plan. Interested in SRG’s Contingency Plan Service? Learn More
Divorce Valuations: A Purpose-Built Process for Litigated Matters
Divorce valuations at SRG are not ordinary business valuations, they are litigation tools. Every step of our process is designed to align with legal expectations and withstand scrutiny from attorneys, judges, and opposing experts. Inside this white paper, you’ll learn how SRG’s process is: Built exclusively for the business-owning spouse (in-spouse). Structured for success through discovery calls with attorneys. Issued only as Conclusions of Value, never Calculations. Supported with options for goodwill bifurcation, expert testimony, and rebuttals. Written by Ryan T. Grau, CVA, CBA, this resource outlines SRG’s defensible, litigation-ready valuation process, providing clarity, independence, and confidence in even the most complex matters. DOWNLOAD NOW
Equity Compensation: A Technical Comparison between Restricted Equity Grants
Equity grants are a powerful way to reward and retain top talent, align employees with long-term business success, and support succession goals. But not all equity grants are created equal. This white paper explores the critical differences between Restricted Stock Awards (RSAs) and Restricted Stock Units (RSUs)—two of the most common forms of restricted equity compensation. Inside, you’ll learn: How RSAs and RSUs differ in grant mechanics, ownership rights, and taxation. The role of the IRC §83(b) election, and when it may (or may not) be beneficial. The advantages, risks, and tax timing implications of each approach. Which equity structure is most suitable depending on your firm’s stage, entity type, and retention goals. A side-by-side comparison table for quick reference. Written by Julia Sexton, CVA®, SRG’s Director of Strategic Organizational Planning, this resource provides practical insights for business owners designing equity-sharing strategies that protect value, motivate employees, and support long-term succession planning. Whether you’re an advisor preparing for succession, building a retention strategy, or simply exploring the right compensation model, this white paper will help you make informed decisions with clarity and confidence. DOWNLOAD NOW
Entity Health Check: Is Your Structure Supporting or Hindering Your Growth
In this replay, Nicole Frey, CFP®, walks through how your firm’s entity structure affects growth, compliance, and succession readiness. Use the Health Scorecard to follow along in real time and see if your business is Optimized (22), Healthy (17–21), or Needs Improvement. Watch the Replay Related Resources Entity Health ScorecardFollow Along and Find Out Your Score → Spring Clean Your Business See What You Can Do → 2025 Advisor M&A Infographic Download Now → Get Your Entity Health Score Card A simple, actionable tool to evaluate your firm’s structure Your entity structure is more than paperwork — it’s the foundation of your business. The Entity Health Score Card helps you quickly assess how well your current structure supports growth, compliance, and succession readiness. Answer a few questions, calculate your score, and uncover clear next steps to protect and optimize your firm. DOWNLOAD NOW Grab A Valuation We offer a variety of solutions and turnaround times to fit your needs. Join myCompass Our membership club grants you inside tips and opportunities to grow. Review our Seller Services We’re here to ensure you secure the best buyer, price and terms.
When should a new RIA start hiring support staff? It’s complicated.
By: Tobias SalingerPublishing Date: August 14, 2025 This is the 13th installment in a Financial Planning series by Chief Correspondent Tobias Salinger on how to build a successful RIA. See the previous stories here, or find them by following Salinger on LinkedIn. Registered investment advisory firms that hire new staff members can harness much greater productivity, but the first employee in the door after a founder represents a costly investment. For financial advisors who have recently launched RIAs or another solo advisory practice, that raises the stakes for picking the right person at the correct time — an essential step for growth-minded firms seeking to gain value as a business and boost their client services. Like many practice management and professional development quandaries facing RIA founders, the pivotal question leads to no single answer that fits every company. Rather, the solution lies in every single RIA’s approach to issues such as whether to outsource tasks with vendors like brokerages, aggregators, custodians or financial technology firms, the number of clients that an advisor can serve before they have topped their capacity and the extent that automation or artificial intelligence could obviate the need for more employees. To read the full article, please visit: https://www.financial-planning.com/news/when-should-a-new-ria-hire-more-staff Disclaimer This article was first published by Tobias Salinger The original article can be found here. All rights to the original content are held by FinancialPlanning.com.
Entity Health Check: Is Your Structure Supporting or Hindering Your Growth
In this replay, Nicole Frey, CFP®, walks through how your firm’s entity structure affects growth, compliance, and succession readiness. Use the Health Scorecard to follow along in real time and see if your business is Optimized (22), Healthy (17–21), or Needs Improvement. Watch the Replay Related Resources Entity Health ScorecardFollow Along and Find Out Your Score → Spring Clean Your Business See What You Can Do → 2025 Advisor M&A Infographic Download Now → Get Your Entity Health Score Card A simple, actionable tool to evaluate your firm’s structure Your entity structure is more than paperwork — it’s the foundation of your business. The Entity Health Score Card helps you quickly assess how well your current structure supports growth, compliance, and succession readiness. Answer a few questions, calculate your score, and uncover clear next steps to protect and optimize your firm. DOWNLOAD NOW Grab A Valuation We offer a variety of solutions and turnaround times to fit your needs. Join myCompass Our membership club grants you inside tips and opportunities to grow. Review our Seller Services We’re here to ensure you secure the best buyer, price and terms.
WealthManagement.com: Succession Resource Group’s New Platform to Help FAs Find Lenders
By: Erick BergquistPublishing Date: May 7, 2020 LendingWell to take advantage of the tightening of lending standards that has arisen due to the coronavirus pandemic. Succession Resource Group, a succession planning consulting firm that helps advisors buy and sell their practices, is launching LendingWell, a free online platform that connects advisors with lenders. The new offering, expedited in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, is intended to help advisors find the right lenders for buyouts, buy-ins, working capital, refinancing, commercial real estate, startup, and recruiting. LendingWell intends to offer an alternative to Devoe & Company’s DeVoe CapitalWorks, another free, although telephone-based, platform that connects RIAs with lenders, and SkyView Partners, which brokers loans from a host of community banks. LendingWell was launched to take advantage of the tightening of lending standards that has arisen due to the coronavirus pandemic. “We saw a significant increase in the number of client contacts we were getting about refis to lower their payments or to secure capital for extra breathing room now that the markets are down,” said David Grau, president and founder of SRG. Lenders, he said, are tightening the amount they will lend; it used to be deals were 100% bank financed, but now that number is down to 50% to 80%. Loan-to-value ratios, he said, have dipped since the outbreak of the pandemic, meaning that “deals that were on the fence no longer qualify,” he added, because values have dipped in lockstep with revenues. Part of the impetus for LendingWell, said Grau, was that in the mid-to-late 2000s, PPC Loan was the only player in RIA lending. Then in 2013, Live Oak joined the fray as an SBA lender to RIAs with capital needs. Now, Grau said, there are at least seven lenders who make capital available to RIAs, and contacting them each can be a time-consuming process that takes months—enough time to sink a deal. SRG “brokers” deals together by negotiating things like the price, the terms and timeline, and does about 50 deals a year in the sub-$1 billion range, Grau said. (Larger deals are usually financed by private equity shops or with the buyer’s balance sheet capital.) DeVoe & Company is a San Francisco-based consulting firm and investment bank, while SkyView Capital acts more like mortgage brokers and connects RIAs with lenders with community banks. But these community banks, Grau says, simply don’t have enough experience with RIA lending to make it onto the LendingWell platform. “We have dozens of lenders we have worked with, but we only want those who have enough experience and who consistently provide capital. There is nothing more frustrating than dealing with a community bank who in their underwriting asks you questions about your IRA when they really mean your RIA. They just don’t know the difference, or understand or know the industry or are here for the long term,” said Grau. Of the 30 participating banks and lenders signed up for the DeVoe program, none is a community bank. SRG features seven banks, but to make it onto LendingWell’s list, a bank has to have provided a certain level of consistent capital for RIA deals in the past 24 months; SRG has set the minimum number of deals at five. LendingWell, he said, performs the same function as SkyView, which connects RIAs to funding sources, without the “middleman” services that SkyView performs for a fee. “When you call SkyView you have to talk to an individual and rely on human knowledge and their familiarity with banks to get matched, for a fee,” said Grau. The DeVoe platform also features a 30-minute phone call during which they “talk through the needs and guardrails” of each advisor and “evaluate lenders and capital providers,” DeVoe Managing Director Brad Grubb said. “We are always honored when others try to copy us,” said Dave DeVoe, founder and managing partner of DeVoe & Company. “We don’t see this as competitive to our offer because we focus on larger RIAs, and just as an HNW investor would not fill out an online tool to find an advisor, our clients appreciate our live discussion to assess their needs and identify the best capital partner,” he said Scott Wetzel, CEO of Minneapolis-based SkyView, said that he was contacted by SRG about participating in LendingWell. “After reviewing the site, we decided to pass; we did not perceive the value of an intermediary who is brokering loans to a very limited number of industry participants [Live Oak, PPC, etc.] conducting RIA financing,” he said. “In addition, the 1% fee that Lending Well/SRG receives from each lender adds unnecessary cost for merely providing a name and we do not view Lending Well as a competitor, it is more akin to Advisor Loans who brokers loans for a fee,” said Wetzel. Grau said that so far LendingWell has attracted a fair amount of users. “In the last four days, we have 60 users. Ten percent of those have been using our chat function, and 5% have called us with questions.” The site is free to use, but SRG is hoping to use it to flag new deals and capitalize by offering its consulting services to those in need of capital. “Really the ultimate benefit for us is, it gives us the opportunity, when clients submit a request for financing, to offer to provide additional services which they may or may not need,” he said. The SRG tool is meant to be very simple. The user is asked up to nine questions, and based on the responses is given a LendingWell Score. The tool then matches the user with the appropriate lender and lending program based upon that score. In seconds, it produces detailed lender profiles, including the lender’s typical interest rate, loan term and specific bank covenants. Disclaimer This article was first published by Erick Bergquist The original article can be found here. All rights to the original content are held by WealthManagement.com.
Citywire USA: Behind Creative Planning’s purchase of Coe Financial Services
By: Jake MartinPublishing Date: May 20, 2020 How a spousal push, and a geographical pull, helped a deal come together Deb wanted him to sell. Long before Richard Coe turned 70 last year, his wife had been ‘strongly advocating’ for his retirement. Coe – who founded his namesake firm in 1983, loved his career and knew nothing about selling a business – was slow to proceed. By the time he sold Coe Financial Services, a Wichita, Kansas-based RIA with about $126m in AUM, his outlook had completely changed. ‘I went from reluctance to acceptance to, now, excitement,’ he said. Trusting the process Coe used RIA consultant Succession Resource Group (SRG), based in Portland, Oregon, to help with the sale process. ‘That kept me out of the emotional side of the negotiating,’ he said. SRG narrowed a list of more than 50 interested parties down to 10 before Coe got involved. The seven finalists ranged from very large to very small. On the small side, there was a Wichita-based advisor in his 30s who left a favorable impression on Coe and his wife. ‘We thought he would operate similarly, in many ways, to how I’ve operated,’ Coe said. But although the conversations went well, an offer did not result. ‘I can understand why someone might get a little reluctant with the market going crazy,’ Coe added. Nonetheless, Coe did get three ‘very attractive’ offers. ‘I cared about financial planning emphasis, likely investment results and the likely client experience,’ Coe said. One of the larger bidders, Creative Planning, checked all those boxes. Personal touch SRG chief executive David Grau said that Creative Planning also distinguished itself from other large firms by having CEO Peter Mallouk, rather than a subordinate, at the deal table. Mallouk said that after an initial ‘checklist’ talk with one of his colleagues, potential sellers deal directly with him. ‘There’s no M&A team, at all,’ he said. ‘It’s me talking with the principals and key team members of the firm, and I also make sure to meet all the employees before a deal is signed.’ From Creative Planning’s perspective, geography was a big factor behind the purchase. Creative Planning already had clients in the Wichita area, but they were covered by a group of advisors working out of the company’s Overland Park, Kansas headquarters. Mallouk said that extending physically into Wichita is an opportunity to ‘localize’ services while testing out a secondary market close to Creative Planning’s home base. However, there was a hitch. Coe wanted to orchestrate a quick exit. It was Mallouk’s first time working with an owner who wanted to exit in less than a year. ‘All of our other deals have been owners who want to stay and continue to grow,’ he said. However, Coe’s timeline aligned with Mallouk’s desire to promote a financial planner from the Wichita area to a wealth manager position. Adding Coe’s office gave Mallouk the perfect outpost to dispatch his new manager. Meanwhile, Coe agreed to stay on for a three-month transition period that will come to an end in mid-June. Another advisor and administrative staffer at his practice will continue working at Creative Planning. With everything set, even the economic turmoil and market crash caused by the Covid-19 pandemic didn’t derail the deal. Early in the process, Mallouk told Coe: ‘We will close quickly, within a week, if we have an agreement.’ ‘I’m thinking, “Wow,”’ Coe said. ‘In the midst of all that was going on in the market, to have a firm that was able to close within a week, that was very significant to me.’ Disclaimer This article was first published by Jake Martin. The original article can be found here. All rights to the original content are held by Citywire.
Citywire USA: Deal structures shift to give sellers more certainty
By: Jake MartinPublishing Date: July 23, 2020 Just 25% of deals in 2020 have contained a clawback feature, down from 67% in 2019, according to RIA consultancy Succession Resource Group. RIA sellers are trading higher values on their firms for less risk in M&A transactions so far in 2020, according to consultancy Succession Resource Group (SRG). The search for certainty has resulted in a sharp reduction in deals with contingencies and clawback features since the end of 2019, the Lake Oswego, Oregon firm said in a recent M&A outlook report. While values dropped despite initial expectations for a ‘strong’ 2020, SRG found that just 25% of deals this year have contained a clawback feature, down from 67% of deals in 2019. Meanwhile, 50% of transactions were all-cash deals. SRG helps financial services firms and professionals value, buy, and sell their businesses, as well as plan for succession and long-range transition of ownership. The firm’s RIA clients typically have $1bn or below in assets under management. Despite a short-term decline in revenue through June, values for RIA firms remained consistent, dropping less than 1% through the first half of 2020, the firm said. The average multiple of revenue of 2.72x in 2019 slipped to 2.70x through the end of the second quarter of 2020. SRG said the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on advisor revenues ‘rebounded much quicker than initially anticipated,’ but that the market volatility will likely serve as a catalyst for advisors who were considering a sale at any point in the next 1-3 years. Kristen Grau, executive vice president of SRG, said she anticipates increased deal volume as early as this summer based not just on the pandemic but increased compliance challenges (Regulation Best Interest, for example), the ‘graying of the industry’ and aging clients, as well as a lack of succession planning. According to SRG, the average advisor age is 55 while the average age of an RIA seller is currently 63. Meanwhile, going into the pandemic, 33% of advisors already expected to retire in the next decade. Brian Lauzon, managing director at investment bank InCap Group, said there continues to be an ‘aggressive appetite’ for acquisitions and that multiples have remained steady for RIA firms in the range of $400m to $3bn in AUM. ‘Leading up to Covid, earn-out periods were shortening and it wasn’t unusual to see a deal with a one- or two-year earn-out,’ Lauzon said. ‘Currently — and we believe going forward — we expect earn-out periods to return to historical norms of three to four years.’ For InCap’s end of the market, Lauzon said all-cash deals have ‘historically been rare’ and will likely continue to be so for the foreseeable future. Disclaimer This article was first published by Jake Martin. The original article can be found here. All rights to the original content are held by Citywire.