Whether advisors are looking to grow their business through partnerships or acquisitions, or hang up their hat and retire, an initiative from Global Travel Collection (GTC) is poised to assist them with their next steps.
Angie Licea
Legacy in Motion was designed to help advisors prepare for the future, said GTC president Angie Licea.
New York-based GTC is the luxury division of Internova Travel Group (No. 10 on Travel Weekly's Power List) and home to 1,500 advisors. Licea took over as its president five years ago.
"The one thing that I noticed when I came into the business is that some of the advisors weren't necessarily managing their business like a business," Licea said.
For instance, she said, they didn't have an exit plan. How long would they stay in business? What would they do with their business upon exiting? Give it to a family member? Sell?
Licea also noticed a need for guidance among agencies interested in growing their businesses via acquisition and partnership.
Legacy in Motion was designed as the solution to all of those issues. GTC worked with Trivium Point Advisory -- which specializes in business valuation, mergers, acquisitions and succession planning -- to design a series of live workshops, one-on-one coaching and on-demand resources for advisors looking to make a change in their business.
It addresses three specific stages: growth, partnership (instead of a full merger) and succession.
GTC has had a number of successful acquisitions among its own independent contractors, Licea said, counting four so far this year.
"We try to do matches," she said. "We have access to 1,500 advisors and really understand the personality and business mixes, trying to help people connect that will do well together. Then this transaction ends up happening where, through time, advisors will sunset their business, others will take it over and we keep everything alive and circular and happening within the organization and within the industry."
The agency also encourages its ICs to retain their own counsel to help with any transactions. In addition, the agency recommends that the two parties sign nondisclosure agreements before sharing sensitive data like financial details.
Licea said GTC is also looking to facilitate manager buyouts of agencies.
"All of this is really meant to help them achieve with their business whatever their objective is," she said. "It's not up to us to determine their objective. Whether it's succession planning, it's retirement, it's handing your business over to somebody else, it's selling your business -- it's to get them to think about it, that's our job."
Legacy in Motion is available to GTC members at no charge, but they are responsible for additional costs if they retain an attorney or Trivium on their own.
"We see it as an investment in the future," Licea said. "It's a win for the advisor, but it's also a win for us that the volume stays in-house. It allows us to continue to support that business as we've been supporting it, so we're thankful for that, as well."