Selling Your Advisory Business: The Urgency of Uncertainty with Kevin Smith
Knowing when to sell your business
Knowing when you sell your business may be one of the most challenging decisions of your career. The signs aren’t always obvious – some people plan for years, while others face unexpected circumstances that accelerate their timeline. To make the process seem less daunting, we sought the wisdom of two advisors who sold their businesses to IPC. They share their unique succession journeys, revealing how they knew it was the right time to sell.
The Challenge of Deciding to Sell
In the summer of 2020, when the world was locked down amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Kevin Smith started experiencing a physical pain. “I felt like I was dying,” he says now. “I didn’t know what it was, but I was very ill.” Despite months of testing and navigating the medical system, doctors still couldn’t tell him what was wrong.
Health Crisis and Family Turmoil
At the same time, his eldest daughter, a young mother of four, was diagnosed with breast cancer. Suddenly, his life was thrown into turmoil. “I didn’t know if I was going to live. I didn’t know if my daughter was going to be OK or if we would have to raise her four children. Would my wife need to do it alone?"
At 56, Smith, a longtime independent advisor with IPC, wasn’t ready to retire just yet. But managing his business had become untenable. “I knew that I was in no shape to re-engineer my touch-intensive service model for the COVID era,” recalls the Kentville, N.S.-based advisor. “My wife and I knew I couldn’t take the risk and keep going. My decision to sell was because I needed to take risk out of my family situation.”
Finding the Right Buyer and Preparing for Succession
When he was eventually diagnosed with a rare tumour in his chest, Smith decided to speed up his succession. He had originally planned for his colleague and mentee – a childhood friend of his daughters’ – to purchase the business in about five years. However, she wasn’t ready to take it on prematurely. Knowing he needed to secure a buyer quickly to maintain stability for his clients, Smith looked to IPC’s Pinnacle program, which offers advisors strategic succession solutions through its role as a potential buyer. “They were fantastic and engineered the transition, took over the practice and the team that I had mentored,” he says. “It was as close to plug-and-play as you could get, and everybody got what they wanted out of the transaction.”
The smooth transition was no accident. Despite the unforeseen speed of the sale, Smith had proactively prepared his business for succession by establishing replicable processes and building a strong team that could support his clients through the transition.
“Selling to IPC was as close to plug-and-play as you could get, and everybody got what they wanted out of the transaction.”
Life After Selling
Today, Smith and his daughter are both in better health. Having retained a 20% stake in his business, he now services two dozen families with whom he has very close relationships. He has more time to spend with his four kids and seven grandchildren and on his hobbies, like sailing and fly fishing. He’s even started a side hustle online business selling fishing flies made in Kenya.
With IPC’s Pinnacle program, Smith didn’t have to make an all-or-nothing choice. Instead, he was able to unlock value from a business he built over decades and take the time he and his family needed while keeping his hand in the work that he loves.
“Everything worked out, and the transaction was every bit in line with what I thought was fair,” he says. “This scenario wasn’t what I had planned, but I’m really proud of my team and myself. It couldn’t have worked out much better given the circumstances.”
“This scenario wasn’t what I had planned, but it couldn’t have worked out much better given the circumstances.”
When you’re ready to move forward, consider these succession solutions, all of which can help you, your team and your clients through a successful.
