Critical Succession & Exit planning leads to $3.5m of new AUM & a $500k higher closing price for the business owner

Industry

Wealth Management & Financial Planning

Challenge

A business owner was uncertain whether an offer from a private equity firm truly reflected the value of her business or aligned with her long-term financial goals.

Results

The Waverly team used RISR to validate the business’s true market value, leading to a $500K higher sale price and securing $3.5M in new AUM for the firm.

www.waverly-advisors.com

"RISR gave us the confidence to validate and defend our client’s business valuation with hard data. What could have been a quick acceptance of the first offer turned into a $500,000 higher sale price and a far stronger outcome for our client’s retirement plan."

Thomas Brown

Partner, Regional Director @ Waverly Advisors

About Waverly Advisors

Founded in 1999 in Birmingham, Alabama, Waverly Advisors began with a simple but powerful mission: to provide objective, client-first financial guidance grounded in trust. As a fee-only Registered Investment Adviser, Waverly has always operated under a fiduciary standard, committed to putting our clients’ best interests at the center of every decision.

The Challenge

A Waverly Advisors client, the owner of a professional services business, was considering a sale to a private equity firm that had expressed strong interest in acquiring her company.

She had already developed a succession and exit plan with her advisory team, but before finalizing the deal, she wanted to ensure the offer fully reflected the company’s market value and would allow her to comfortably meet her retirement and legacy goals.

The Waverly team needed clarity to:

Confirm whether the offer aligned with fair market valuation benchmarks
Validate that the proceeds would fully fund her retirement objectives
Provide confidence that accepting the deal was the right strategic move

The Solution

Leveraging RISR, Waverly Advisors performed a full business insights analysis of the client’s professional services firm, using market-based transaction data to establish a defensible range of value.

When the team compared the private equity offer against RISR’s analysis, it became clear that the business was potentially undervalued.

The Waverly team walked the client through the valuation drivers behind that gap, highlighting how strong recurring revenue and above-average margins supported a higher price.

Equipped with those insights, they were able to re-engage the buyer with data-backed confidence and negotiate a new closing price.

The Results

By utilizing RISR, Waverly Advisors empowered their client to make one of the most significant financial decisions of her life with clarity and confidence.

Negotiated a $500K higher closing price based on objective valuation data

Successfully exited the business and fully funded retirement and legacy goals for the business owner