Gilly Green

So those things have got to be looked at.

Another thing to look at is perhaps the decision making process.

You know, who's authorized to make decisions?

How do they happen?

Is there some autonomy?

What happens if you take it away during the acquisition?

So those things are important.

And on that subject, actually, a really good example of good practice was one firm created a forum, which was called the Founders Forum.

So everybody who they'd acquired who was staying and not retiring, they brought into a forum where they could have a say because ultimately they're not an exec anymore.

So trying to bring them on board in that way was really helpful.

It's also a good culture carrier when you've got people from the originating business in it.

If you're doing it well, if you're doing it really badly, it can just become a complaints forum.

So you've got to be careful.

I think another example of really great practice that we saw was a firm who was actually acquiring advisor-led firms with younger advisors in them.

And they also had in their own house a number of retiring advisors.

So immediately they brought that company on board.

Literally in the first week, they would start giving clients from the retiring advisor to the younger advisors to fill up their books.

And that really, really engages people.

It means they've even got to use the same processes because they've immediately got to use the systems that those clients are on.

And this company, by the way, had a target of two or three days to combine the data.