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Authentic Deal-Making Authentic Negotiating Deal-Driven Growth

Wealth Management

Elizabeth (Liz) Nesvold is the Managing Director and Head of Asset & Wealth Management Investment Banking for Raymond James. She joined the Raymond James’ team in 2019 as part of the acquisition of Silver Lane Advisors. Liz has been described as “the most experienced female investment banker specializing in the investment management and securities industry” by Mergers & Acquisitions magazine. 

Liz’s Background & Experience

Over the past 25-plus years, she has advised on approximately 170 completed M&A, valuation and strategic advisory assignments for a variety of clients. These clients include institutional managers (both traditional and alternative), trust companies, multi-family offices, investment counselors, financial planners and investment consultants. Prior to joining Raymond James, Ms. Nesvold founded Silver Lane in 2007. Before Silver Lane, Liz spent 15 years at another investment bank, where she co-founded and led the first wealth management specialist M&A advisory group in the investment banking industry. Ms. Nesvold was one of only two female partners at the time of her departure, and also served on the operating committee. A member of Young Presidents’ Organization, she earned a BA in Political Science with a minor in Economics from Binghamton University and an MBA in Finance (with high honors) from Fordham University Graduate School of Business.

As the M&A industry has matured, there has been an increase in attention and opportunity. As an early adopter, Liz has been part of shaping the industry and has significantly contributed to its growth and direction.

Earliest Deal-Making Memories

Growing up, Liz expected to go into construction and run her dad’s company. She grew up around the industry and always assumed it was the direction she would go. Instead, however, she went into finance with great success.

Liz’s first remembered deal was connected to what she learned in her home economics class. She learned to sew, and started a quilted bag company she called Designs by Lizzie B. She sold her bags to local merchants, who then resold them. Quite a strong start for a 15 year old!

Her commitment to entering the M&A world started as a fluke. Post-college, Liz interviewed at all sorts of firms, ultimately receiving an offer from a firm engaged in all sorts of mergers and acquisitions. They were deeply involved in the securities industry, as well as in asset management.

Gaining Deal-Making Traction

As she moved through the ranks, Liz noticed that every specialty seemed to be “covered” by an already-established expert. (Big insurance companies, big broker dealers, big asset managers, big mutual fund complexes, etc.)  In addition, there were no real training programs being offered in-house. The only space Liz could see there might be a bit of room was investment council. It seemed like a good place to get her foot in the door, and she went for it.

There were production requirements, and Liz started to get in the habit of calling small firms. (At the time, a “big” firm in the field was around three to five hundred million in assets. These days, that’s almost considered small!) As she gained traction, it was clear no one was really covering the space, and she leveraged it into a practice group to help other colleagues learn more.

Clearly she succeeded! Although she attributes it to “dumb luck all the way in”, Liz certainly knew her industry and identified an area that had been overlooked for too long.

Liz also noted that she’s always been willing to take a look, and never quick to say no to something new. In fact, she’s done five deals with one firm that cold called her when they were sitting at around five hundred million in assets. In the most recent deal she assisted them with, their assets were over eight billion in assets. Case in point: Never say never — you have to get started somewhere!

Deals at Raymond James

Liz noted that now, at Raymond James, she makes deals of all sizes. She’s worked with franchises valued around thirty million in assets, as well as those at five hundred million and beyond. In the last two years, with around 28 deals completed, Liz estimates the bulk of them are between twenty five and a hundred million dollars in size.

Massive deals occur, but they certainly aren’t the bulk of transactions. (Even though those are the deals that everyone is always reading about!) Deals range from family office mergers, wealth solutions, fee-only, and more. Liz notes that it’s all over the map, and she enjoys being kept on her toes as a result!

Transitioning away from Silver Lane and joining Raymond James was also a deal in and of itself. Liz reports that being on the other side of the deal-making table caused her to become much more in tune with elements of deal-making that she hadn’t typically experienced herself. The insight has been great, and she’s been able to utilize it in her work now.

Liz also notes that Silver Lane did exactly as they advise others to do; they got an advisor and navigated towards what they were trying to accomplish in terms of making their own deals, rather than simply matching the marketplace. The major focus was on growth and the ability to continue to build.

Getting Deals Done

Liz and I have worked together on multiple deals, including one we worked hard to push through before end-of-year last year. (The push was connected to possible capital gains increases.)

Now, Liz notes that a changing tax landscape would never be a reason she would encourage someone to rush to the deal-making table. However, she notes that potential changes are a piece of the puzzle for firms currently pushing to get deals done this year. She’s also seen it speed up the continuity planning for many businesses. Liz notes this is something that needed to happen in an industry where key principles are aging.

If you’re in the middle of a deal, Liz thinks it’s probably a good idea to complete it in the current tax year. Contemplating starting something now? Well, she notes it would be quite a tight timeline to run a thoughtful, strategic process. It’s important to understand that it takes time to engineer a well-crafted deal that makes sense for your business in the long term.

Historically, there are always examples of people panicking because they are fixated on a single factor. There is a big difference between taking something into account, and allowing something to overwhelm your common-sense decision making. Capital gains increases might influence your next deal, but there is no need for them to become the primary reason for the choices you’re making.

The Capital is There

In this day and age, there is no good deal in the wealth management space that there is not capital available for. The money is there!

There are more solutions today, across the entire spectrum of financing, than Liz has seen in the last 30 years. 3-4 years ago there were a number of strategic gaps, but those are closing quickly. In some ways, it’s excellent that this dearth of choices has been filled in. However, Liz also notes that the increase in options and strategics has also created confusion in the industry. As a result, the need for due diligence is higher than ever!

In Liz’s perspective, in some ways the industry had become flooded with choice about 5 years ago. The largest lack of choice, however, was coming from the minority solutions space. Now, there are many clients looking for elections in minority financing, partners, and sponsor investors. These are great choices for firms who want to perpetuate the independent model, which had been missing from the table.

The last 10 years have been great for deals. Listen in to the full interview to hear more about Liz’s perspective on acceleration trends, succession, and more!

Corey Kupfer is an expert strategist, negotiator and dealmaker. He has more than 35 years of professional deal-making and negotiating experience. Corey is a successful entrepreneur, attorney, consultant, author and professional speaker. He is deeply passionate about deal-driven growth. He is also the creator and host of the DealQuest Podcast.

If you want to find out how deal-ready you are, take the Deal- Ready Assessment today!

 

Categories
Authentic Deal-Making Authentic Negotiating Deal-Driven Growth

Capital Gains’ Impact on Deals

A few weeks ago I came on and shared some thoughts on capital gains rates and deal-making. It ended up being one of my most popular episodes — apparently capital gains are garnering a lot of interest in the marketplace! Today, I’d like to go even deeper and drill down on capital gains’ impact on deals.

Capital Gains Overview

At the end of 2020, there were many people rushing to get deals done quickly. Now, I think it’s important to note that these were mostly folks who had deals on the table prior to the end of the year. When it came to timelines, it made sense to push through in November and December, rather than wait till January and face new rates.

Many of us felt, however, that there wouldn’t be increases until later, if at all. After all, the new administration didn’t take over until January, and there are all sorts of legislative steps to go through. That turned out to be accurate; capital gains rates might still go up for 2022. At the moment, however, the likelihood and uncertainty are impacting businesses.

We’ve had a number of clients expressing an interest in deal-making and getting things closed out by the end of this year. Similar to in 2020, these are business owners who are ready to make deals, and who are just taking an extra precaution by timing it to close in 2021. If you were planning to get another 3, 5, or even more years out of your business before selling, possible capital gains increases are not, in my opinion, a reason to rush into selling early.

If you’re planning to sell in the next 12-18 months for sure, it might make sense to move forward with a slightly accelerated timeline.

What Kinds Of Deals Are Impacted?

Capital gains rates apply to the sale of a business or entity. When you sell the assets of a business (which is how most deals are done), whether in full or in part, or the equity, there are generally going to be capital gains rates assessed. This applies to real estate as well. Essentially, anything you’ll be selling at a gain in relation to your business might be affected by capital gains rates.

Any gains above your tax basis are taxed at capital gains rates, which are currently significantly lower than other rates. (Check with your tax advisor to learn more about your specific situation here.) This can be the difference between 20% in capital gains, or 37-39% at higher rates. That is a significant difference in terms of what you walk away with! 

Personal Goodwill Sales

One option many people aren’t aware of is the personal goodwill sale. 

Note: The IRS allows these sales under their current regulations, but they do look at them very closely. This means it is extremely important that you go about doing it the right way.

If someone is an employee of an asset or financial firm (Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, etc), or in trades like insurance, law, and anything else that includes a client portfolio, many people mistakenly think they have nothing to sell that would classify for capital gains. However, this isn’t true!

I recently had a friend in the wealth management field who assumed his best or only option would be revenue sharing based on his past list. This means any money you get is ordinary revenue for you, and the person who took over your book can write off the payments they make to you for your share. This is less ideal for you (the “seller”) and better for the person who took on your clients (the “buyer”).

However, I helped him see that it’s not the only way. If you can show that, if you left, a majority or large percentage of your clients would come with you or otherwise take their business elsewhere, you have leverage. This is true even though you don’t “own” the list, per se. Rather, you have built up “personal goodwill”. If you (as a person) have built up the goodwill within the list (rather than the goodwill being simply vested with the overarching company), then you may be able to benefit from capital gains rates as part of a deal.

The friend I mentioned above had built a deep list with a great basis in personal goodwill. Rather than set him up with a revenue share deal, we created a transfer of personal goodwill sale. 

Other Factors That Impact Selling Decisions

In the 90’s, capital gains rates were much higher than they are now. There were still lots of deals going on, however! Why?

Well, there are many factors that impact deals. One of those is access to capital. Whenever there is ready access to capital (which there is now), deals will be made. Increases in capital gains rates won’t necessarily dry up capital, and deals will likely continue regardless of increases in rates.

Also, investors are always looking for ways to get returns. If they can invest a million dollars and get back fifteen million, even with an increased rate they’re still netting 60% for a very healthy net profit. If you can get multiples on a return, that will take precedence to the tax rate.

(Not that they won’t consider the rates; just that the ability to turn a net profit will still be compelling.)

In addition, there are many reasons people sell businesses. They may be ready to retire, or need to sell for health or other reasons. If that time comes, owners will be willing to make deals regardless of the capital gains rates. After all, they can’t (or won’t want to) stay in business forever.

Listen in to the full episode for more ways on getting creative with rolling businesses over and deferring capital gains payments. I’m expecting some of those creative exchanges to gain strength if we do see capital gains rates increase.

Time to Panic?

In my professional opinion: no. Pay attention to the market, get personalized tax and deal-making advice, and make decisions that make sense for you and your business. Rates may increase in 2022, so it could be wise to complete deals that you planned to make in the next year or so prior to the end of the year. If you didn’t have a major move in mind, I wouldn’t advise rushing into something just to avoid possible capital gains increases.

Have questions? I’d be happy to connect! And if you listened to the full episode and are interested in learning more about my white boarding sessions, feel free to reach out about those as well. 

 

Corey Kupfer is an expert strategist, negotiator and dealmaker. He has more than 35 years of professional deal-making and negotiating experience. Corey is a successful entrepreneur, attorney, consultant, author and professional speaker. He is deeply passionate about deal-driven growth. He is also the creator and host of the DealQuest Podcast.

If you want to find out how deal-ready you are, take the Deal- Ready Assessment today!

 

 

Categories
Authentic Deal-Making Authentic Leadership Authentic Negotiating Deal-Driven Growth

Capital Gains Rates and Deals

In this solocast, I talk about how potential increases in capital gains rates can have an impact on deals. Last year we started seeing this, and it’s only continued to grow coming into this year. We don’t know if capital gains rates are going to continue going up. However, we do know the Biden administration is proposing increases. The marketplace, of course, is watching and waiting. Regardless of your politics, you’ll want to be thinking through the business and deal-making implications of capital gains rate increases.

Capital Gains Rates & Deal-Making

When we started seeing the potential significant increases in capital gains rates at the end of last year, many businesses pushed deals through quickly. They were able to get them done in November and December of 2020, just in case the rates did change. It was a very busy time for deal-makers, despite the pandemic.

That acceleration has continued into this year. Now, possible increases in capital gains rates now appear to have been pushed back to 2022. As a result, many deals are occurring, and many businesses are positioning themselves to pursue active deal-making. On the M&A side of things, that means we’re headed for a robust year. Pair that with the reopening economy and the increased gains in Covid vaccinations, and I believe we’ll see deals continuing to move ahead full force in the upcoming months.

Other market factors are driving deals as well, such as valuation trends. However, an awareness of potential increases in capital gains rates is certainly present on everyone’s minds.

Deal-Making Timelines 

If your timeline for selling was about 5 years out (or more), you likely don’t need to make any major adjustments. However, if you were hoping to sell within the next year or two, it would be wise to have some awareness of how things are changing, and how that could impact your plans. It’s wise to be aware of how tax rates will impact you as both a seller and buyer, and it makes sense to mitigate losses when you’re able to.

Something worth noting, however, is that the primary driver of decisions is not tax policy. There are so many other factors impacting deals, including strategic reasons to buy/sell/acquire/merge, that tax policy cannot be considered the primary driver of deals.

When capital gains rates go up, there can be a depression of capital available for people wanting to invest. The increased rate of taxation makes returns less attractive, which can change people’s actions on the market. However, results and trends do show that these rates are not the only factors on the deals and investments people are making. Many factors contribute to deal-making, and taxes are only a single factor.

Should You Accelerate?

If you’re in the position to sell your company and you have a short term horizon, it may make sense to look into accelerating and taking action this year. Although capital gains rates may not increase, we do feel pretty sure they will either stay the same or go higher. They aren’t going down!

I definitely don’t think there is any call for panic though! Just because capital gains rates might be going up, you don’t need to feel pressed into selling if the time isn’t right for you. It’s wisest to make a measured, wise decision that takes both short and long term considerations into mind.

Maximizing net returns on capital is key for investors, for example, and their ability to do so is a more compelling decision-making factor than capital gains rates alone. Again, there are so many complex factors in deal-making that surpass tax rates. Although capital gains rates can impact things, the reality is that investors will be looking to deploy capital and get back multiples on that capital, and they’ll do it via investing.

Now, they may also choose to take the higher tax rates into consideration when coming to the deal table. This may change deal structures and offers, and may be something worth considering. The opportunity for growth within the market, however, will still be the largest factor in whether deals get done.

Overall Impact

There is a knee-jerk logic that says raising capital gains rates will automatically depress investment. I don’t think that is necessarily true, an idea that historical rates supports. Now, if the rates stay high for an extended time, we may see more negative results.

At the end of the day, it may happen or may not happen. In business, we have to deal with what is and minimize adverse impacts as we’re able to. Ultimately, entrepreneurs will keep building companies, investors will keep investing, and deals will be made.

Short-term, deal-growth and acceleration are being spurred by the possibility of capital gain rate increases. In the long-term, we’ll have to see whether the rates increase even gets passed at all. If it happens, I believe most operational business owners will find that there are many other factors that have more primacy than these rates over whether deals happen or not. 

There is honestly so much money out there that is ready to be deployed; deals aren’t going to dry up overnight because of increases to these rates. However, if you are positioned to make a deal this year, it makes the most sense to close it out before the end of the year. This way, you can avoid potential losses as a result of capital gains rate increases. We’ll be ⅓ of the way through the year when this episode goes live. Because deals take time, you’ll want to get moving if you know that you want to complete yours this year. If not, there’s no need to rush into anything based on this one factor.

Those are my thoughts. I’d love to hear from you how you’re choosing to react to the possibility of capital gains rates increases!

Listen in to the full episode here.

Corey Kupfer is an expert strategist, negotiator and dealmaker. He has more than 35 years of professional deal-making and negotiating experience. Corey is a successful entrepreneur, attorney, consultant, author and professional speaker who is passionate about deal-driven growth. He is also the creator and host of the DealQuest Podcast.

If you want to find out how deal-ready you are, take the Deal- Ready Assessment today!