One process. Four parties. No gaps between them.
Owner, steward, capital and adviser move through the same sequence, each with a defined responsibility at every stage.
Who carries what, and when.
Successions fail in the gaps between the parties. This map is our attempt to close them.
A considered process takes time.
Indicative elapsed time from first conversation to a completed handover. Stages overlap; none of them are skipped.
Five stages, and what each one is for.
Owners reach us directly or through the advisers who already know them. The first conversation carries no obligation and no mandate, and produces no document.
We map the judgement held by the owner, the relationships that hold customers, and the people the company depends on. This is the part a transaction process usually skips, and it is the part that decides whether a handover holds.
A steward is proposed only where the operating history, temperament and intent genuinely correspond. Owners meet one candidate at a time, never a shortlist, and stewards are never sent a deal list.
The acquisition capital funds the transition alongside the steward’s own commitment. Borrowing stays within what the company can service through an ordinary bad year.
The outgoing owner stays as long as is useful and no longer. Employees, customers and suppliers are told in a sequence agreed in advance, by the people they already trust.
Either party can stop at any point, without explanation and without penalty from us.
Where are you in the process?
Knowledge does not transfer in a single meeting.
Begin the conversation whenever you are ready to think about it seriously.