21 Pre-sale due diligence, before the buyer does it Every acquirer will run detailed due diligence. We can run it first, on your side of the table. It typically covers a sample-based review of advice files and suitability, complaints, adviser competence and supervision records, Consumer Duty evidence, financial promotions and marketing material, permissions and regulatory reporting, and the quality of your client and income MI data for Consumer Duty purposes. You get a clear picture of where the firm stands, a prioritised list of fixes and a realistic view of the time needed to make them. That is often the difference between answering a buyer's questions with confidence and negotiating at a discount. Questions worth asking yourself • Have you thought about what you want the end result to look like for the business? • If a buyer ran due diligence on your files next month, what would they find? • What keeps you awake at night from a compliance point of view? • How much of the business still depends on you personally? The end result does not have to be a sale. Wherever you are on that journey, we can help you build a firm that is worth more and easier to run. To talk it through, visit The Agency page and then speak to your usual Paradigm contact. Paradigm Mortgage Services David Ryder Head of Proposition, Paradigm Consulting We have refreshed The Agency page on our website, and we wanted to bring this element of our proposition to your attention. The Agency helps firms plan and deliver an exit: building the business, preparing it for sale, maximising value at exit and then finding a buyer. Whether you are ten years away (or greater) from stepping back, within five years of it, or simply want to know where you stand, there is something here for you. Value starts with compliance Buyers pay for certainty. One of the biggest things that erodes value, delays a deal or stops it outright is uncertainty about the quality of past advice and the records behind it. Clean, well evidenced files, suitable advice, clear disclosure and a documented Consumer Duty approach make a firm straightforward to buy. Without them, a seller can face price adjustments, deferred consideration, extended warranties and indemnities, or no offer at all. This is exactly where Paradigm Consulting works with firms every day: file reviews and suitability checks, consumer outcomes evidence, T&C records, SM&CR and governance, financial promotions sign-off and technical support on complex cases. Start thinking about selling five years out The firms that achieve the strongest outcomes usually start preparing around five years before they want to sell, because the things that lift a valuation take time to bed in. That means remediating historic advice issues properly, embedding consistent processes across every adviser, reducing the firm's reliance on the owner and tidying the client bank. Firms that come to market with only twelve months' notice often end up selling on the buyer's terms rather than their own. The Agency: Maximising the Value of your Firm on Exit...Whenever it Comes
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