How to Sell Your Financial Planning Firm Without Regretting It | Vicky Hicks from Melo

Everyone selling a Financial Planning firm obsesses over the multiple of EBITDA or Recurring income. Almost nobody prepares for the Monday morning after. So I sat down with Vicky Hicks from Melo, who has been on both sides of this. She started in financial planning at 22 after being made redundant from Northern Rock. She worked for a Financial Planning firm in York working her way up to becoming a Director of the firm before selling along with her partners her stake in the business. That sale is what pushed her into M&A. She's done around a hundred transactions since. We got into: ● Why her own sale was selling to get in, rather than to get out and why the reality afterwards didn't match the press release ● The three-year lock-in that meant she couldn't advise, couldn't set up on her own and had to build something else entirely. ● Why roughly 70% of owners end up disappointed post-sale, and how much of it traces back to cultural mismatch rather than the money ● The personal readiness nobody does the work on: who you are when the business isn't yours any more. ● Why EBITDA powers every deal, not the multiple of recurring income everyone quotes. ● Deal structures worth knowing: shared upside, true-ups, full revaluations, and why the headline price is the least interesting number. ● Fish and chip offers - quote the big number at the start that gets chipped away through due diligence, and why it usually isn't the buyers fault. ● How a small firm competes for talent with a consolidator offering a client bank and £80k salary: growth shares, EMI schemes, MBOs and employee ownership trusts. ● The baby boomer wave about to hit the profession, and what it does to supply One line that stuck with me: quote's amazing how quickly the number in the bank account wears off. If you own a planning firm, you're thinking about your exit, or you're trying to build a team that could one day take it over, there's a lot in here you can steal. ⏱️ Chapters 00:00 Who is Vicky Hicks (and Melo) 01:04 Northern Rock, redundancy, and starting at 22 with no clients 02:37 Becoming MD of a chartered firm, then selling in 2018 04:36 We were selling to get in, not to get out 05:22 What actually happened after the sale: losing autonomy 09:02 The three-year lock-in and the hardest decision 10:27 City & Capital Acquisitions, and the Melo rebrand 14:39 I missed it. I grieved. 18:28 Why so many sales go wrong: the 70% problem 21:11 What culture actually means when you're matching firms 23:25 The personal readiness nobody prepares for 25:42 Exit as a phase, not a transaction 29:11 The fee alignment problem 32:43 Why EBITDA powers the deal, not recurring income multiples 34:40 Deal structures: shared upside, true-ups and revaluations 38:26 Why the headline price lies, and fish and chip offers 42:19 How small firms compete with consolidator salaries 49:55 Growth shares, EMI schemes, MBOs and EOTs explained 59:35 The grieving process, and the baby boomer wave 1:02:55 The one piece of advice she'd give any owner 1:07:43 What Melo's Exit Readiness Assessment covers