Inside The Succession Trap: Why Sell and Exit Deals Keep Failing
Advisor Talk with Frank LaRosa
Most advisors say they want to exit. What they actually want is to stop doing the parts they hate.
Scott Danner has had this conversation more times than he can count. The advisor says they want to sell. Then the deal falls apart. Not because the numbers were wrong but because nobody asked the right question at the start.
Scott is the Executive Vice President and Head of Legacy at Steward Partners. He founded Freedom Street Partners in 2016, built it to nearly $3.5 billion in AUM, and sold it to Steward Partners in late 2023. He started at Edward Jones with zero clients and cold called his way into the industry. That background gives him a credibility in this conversation that most people talking about M&A simply do not have.
In this episode, Frank and Scott break down what is actually happening inside succession deals when they collapse, why M&A is the mechanism quietly solving the industry's age and talent problem and how the sell, stay and grow model gives advisors a way to monetize without disappearing.
Scott also shares how Freedom Street Partners built a career ladder that next generation advisors could actually follow, what independence with infrastructure means at Steward Partners and why he believes advisors who dismiss a W2 model immediately are thinking too small.
Questions answered in this episode include:
Why do sell and exit deals keep failing?
What does M&A actually do for the long-term health of the financial advisory industry?
What is the sell, stay and grow model and how does it work?
How do you build a career ladder that next generation advisors will actually believe in?
What does independence with infrastructure mean at Steward Partners?
How can an advisor keep their brand and their clients while still monetizing their practice?
Why should advisors think twice before ruling out a W2 model?
Chapters:
00:00 Intro and Scott Danner Background
02:53 Building From Scratch at Edward Jones
07:19 Why M&A is Saving the Industry
09:29 The Sell Stay and Grow Model
13:55 Building a Ladder for Next Gen Advisors
17:22 Independence With Infrastructure
26:11 Rethinking the W2 Model
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