You keep the client. We provide the route they do not currently have.
A succession partner for established businesses and the professional advisers around them.
You may be advising an owner in one of these positions.
Six commitments, written down.
The complaint we hear most often from advisers is that a client disappears into a process and nothing comes back.
One person, named to you at the outset, who does not change during the engagement.
To you, not only to your client.
We will update you at each stage change, and we will not leave you without word while a matter is live — including when the update is that nothing has moved.
If the company is not a fit, we aim to say so within two weeks and to explain why in writing. A clear no is something you can take back to your client.
We will not offer your client accountancy, tax, legal or corporate finance services, and we will not introduce a competing adviser.
We will not run a process with your client that excludes you, and we will not suggest they replace you.
The owner's professional team stays central throughout.
We are not a competing adviser. Documentation, tax structuring and the client relationship remain yours.
We do not pay introduction or referral fees.
We would rather you introduced us because the route suits your client than because a payment is attached — and it removes any question about your independence, or about the basis on which the recommendation was made.
Five steps from private discussion to coordinated execution.
Initial discussion
A conversation about the situation in general terms. No client is named, no information changes hands, and nothing is recorded.
Owner introduction
Only with your client's explicit consent, at a pace they set, with you present if that is what they prefer.
Suitability conversation
We say plainly whether the company fits what we do. A clear no, given early, is more useful to you than a long maybe.
Agreed process
Scope, sequence, information handling and each party's responsibilities set out in writing before anything substantive begins.
Coordinated execution
You lead documentation and tax; we lead steward selection, preparation and the transition plan. One timetable, shared openly.
Confidentiality in practice.
Information is released stage by stage and only to people who need it. Nothing is circulated to a buyer list, because there is no buyer list.
We will tell you which organisations have been given information, and when. If a process stops, we will return or delete material on request, other than anything we are required to retain, and confirm in writing what has been kept and why.
Who we hear from.
Do you advise an owner without a clear successor?
Begin without naming your client.