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Synergy25 Live Ep. 8: Roger Overby Helps Guide RIAs Through Exit Strategies for Business-Owning Clients
29 Plays8 months ago
Advisors often plan early for the future of their own businesses, but what about their business-owning clients? When a client is ready to exit their business, it’s a major financial milestone that often involves other firms. Bill Coppel, Director of Client Growth at TradePMR, and Ryan Neal, Senior Editor at TradePMR chat with Roger Overby, Senior Managing Director at Skyway Capital Markets about how RIAs can have a seat at the table and help guide clients through their own succession strategies.
Listen as they explore:
- Practical ways advisors can introduce succession planning to business-owning clients
- Strategies to help maintain meaningful and ongoing dialogue
- How Skyway’s collaboration with TradePMR provides tools and resources to help advisors succeed
Skyway Capital Markets and TradePMR Inc. are unaffiliated companies. If you want to join the conversation or connect with us, please visit us at synergizepodcast.com. This content is provided for general information purposes only.The views expressed by non-affiliated guest speakers are their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of TradePMR Inc. or its affiliates. TradePMR Inc. and its affiliates do not endorse any guest speakers or their companies and therefore give no assurances as to the quality of their products and services. This channel is not monitored by TradePMR Inc. TradePMR Inc. does not provide investment advice, tax advice or legal advice. TradePMR Inc. is a member of FINRA and SIPC. TradePMR, Inc.,is registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission {SEC) and the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB). TradePMR provides brokerage and account services to registered investment advisors. Custodial services provided by First Clearing. Clearing is a trade name used by Wells Fargo Clearing Services, LLC, Member SIPC, a registered broker dealer and non-bank affiliate of Wells Fargo & Company. Copyright 2025.
TradePMR, Inc. For a transcript of this episode with sources, visit synergizepodcast.com.
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Transcript
Introduction to Synergize Podcast Live
00:00:05
Speaker
Hi, I'm Bill Capelle, Chief Client Growth Officer at Trade PMR, a Robinhood company. And I'm Ryan Neal, Senior Editor at Trade PMR Robinhood. And welcome to the Synergize Podcast Live. That's right, Ryan. We're live here at the JW Marriott in Tampa, Florida for Trade PMR's signature event, Synergy 25.
Roger Overby on Skyway Capital's Role and Focus
00:00:25
Speaker
And we had an opportunity to sit down with Roger Overby of Skyway Capital to talk a little bit about what he does. Skyway Capital is one of our marquee sponsors, and I'm really excited about this conversation because I've been to lots of industry events where M&A is always a topic, but it's always about how to help advisors sell their practice.
00:00:44
Speaker
But as our listeners know, a lot of advisors work with business owning clients. They help manage some of the company finances. Maybe they help with the retirement plan. But when it time comes time for those clients to sell their business, a lot of advisors don't get a seat at the table and until it's too late.
Enhancing Advisor-Client Relationships in Business Sales
00:01:02
Speaker
So Roger joined Trade PMR Chief Revenue Officer Rob Dilbone on the Synergy stage to talk about how advisors can be sure they have that seat at the table for those major liquidity events and how they can use that to help add value to their relationship with the client.
00:01:17
Speaker
So Roger, thanks for being here. Yeah, thank you. appreciate it very much, Bill and and and Ryan. i'm I'm excited to be here. It's been fun so far. It's great to have you with us. um Just a little bit more about Roger. Roger a Senior Managing Director at Skyway Capital, a middle market investment bank specializing in mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, and private capital advisory services.
00:01:40
Speaker
To learn more about Roger and Skyway, please visit our show notes. So let's just jump right in, okay? Okay, all right.
Skyway Capital's Client Base and Reach
00:01:48
Speaker
you Great presentation yesterday. I learned a lot, but I think our listeners are gonna even learn more.
00:01:53
Speaker
So tell us a little bit about Skyway and who you're, you know what are the kinds of firms that you serve? Yeah, so so Bill, yeah, thanks. so so So Skyway was formed in 2002 in Tampa. The firm's 23 years old now.
00:02:09
Speaker
um Headquartered in Tampa, office in Atlanta. probably have 40 folks around the country. um Salespeople in Seattle, LA, Houston, Boise, Idaho, Chicago, ah Miami, Jacksonville, and Greenville, South Carolina.
00:02:29
Speaker
So we got folks scattered all around the country. um We spend most of our time focused on mergers acquisitions m and M&A for family owned and founder led businesses.
00:02:41
Speaker
um Those businesses can run the gamut from small business to a large business, $4 $5 million of EBITDA, $25 million-ish of enterprise value, all the way up $30, $40, $50 million EBITDA, $300, $400, $600 million enterprise value.
00:02:53
Speaker
um all the way up to thirty forty fifty million dollars e but ah three hundred for one six hundred million of of enterprise value um Guys, we've probably sold, i don't know, 250 companies over the 23, 23, 24 years.
00:03:08
Speaker
$15 billion dollars of proceeds to those those owners of those businesses. um And um every every day every day, our goal is to have a conversation with a business owner about their future
Advisors' Role in Client Business Planning
00:03:23
Speaker
plans for that business. Whether it's, we're going to sell the business completely. We have relatives in the business.
00:03:28
Speaker
Maybe it's our children. Maybe it's ah a father, a mother, a a a a key employee that's in the business. how do we How do we go about that? How do we protect those people? How do we how do we whiteboard out exactly what we're looking for and when a transaction closes?
00:03:44
Speaker
um And it's just an incredible amount of fun. That sounds good. So advisors are often in the business of future plans, right? So how do advisors fit in with what you guys are doing at Skyway? That's a great that's a great question. So a couple years ago, we actually had an advisor pick up the phone and call us about a client that they've had for quite some time, second generation business.
00:04:09
Speaker
They've been managing the family's money for quite some time. But they had decided that they wanted to sell the business. And the company was quite large, a roofing company in South Florida.
00:04:21
Speaker
And so they the the owner invited six firms a like Skyway to come pitch the deal to see who he was going to hire to to go out and sell the family jewel, if you will.
00:04:32
Speaker
And so, um The advisor invited us in. We wound up being one of the last two firms um that they were considering. The other firm was Raymond James.
00:04:43
Speaker
And so, so so the i mean, Bill, the so the advisor's concern was if Raymond James wins the mandate to represent and sell this business, that $200 million dollars plus of closing proceeds would wind up in Raymond James' wealth management platform. Yeah, absolutely, 100%. And Ryan, that that advisor would lose that relationship.
00:05:05
Speaker
And so the advisor was our biggest advocate. And as we went through that transaction with the advisor, um kind of that that light went off in our head and, oh my gosh,
00:05:16
Speaker
We need to be talking to as many advisors as we can because if if they have business owner clients, they could face that same dilemma at some point time in the future, and we could be a great ally and resource and partner to help them out in that type of a transaction.
Initiating Conversations About Business Liquidity
00:05:32
Speaker
yeah Let's chill down on that a bit because You know, my experience in the business has been, i don't know an an advisor that doesn't have at least one client that's a business owner. And and typically, there can be somewhat of illiquidity in that relationship. You know, most small business owners in that range you talked about, um whether it's five to 50 million in EBITDA, you know, typically pour a lot of their assets and revenue back into the business.
00:06:01
Speaker
ah And so when they're building that plan, um it becomes paramount in my mind that they begin to have that conversation. It could be 10, 15, even 20 years prior to that liquid liquidating event.
00:06:14
Speaker
What kind of advice would you give advisors as they begin the planning process or wherever they are in that planning arc? How do you go about you know teeing up the idea that I can help you when it comes time? And Bill, bill that's a great point because you're right.
00:06:31
Speaker
we We try and tell and talk to advisors about the fact that their business owner clients, most of their wealth has been created by the increasing value of that business.
00:06:41
Speaker
So 80% of the value, 80% their wealth is is the value of that business, which is illiquid. And you're fixing to unlock that liquidity event. So it takes a good bit of planning in the future because you're going to have youre goingnna have accounting issues. You're going to have estate planning issues.
00:06:58
Speaker
You're going to have tax issues. um You're going to have timing issues. um And so we talk to advisors about... yeah And we asked them the question, do you have an annual review with your client? Every advisor said, we absolutely do.
00:07:11
Speaker
We sit down, we go through a whole list of items we want to talk about. And we say, what what what why don't you add the question, have you ever considered selling your business, Mr. Client?
00:07:24
Speaker
Or have you thought about when you would want to sell your business? Have you thought about if you would want to sell your business? and And so if they add that into that annual review, then they're uncovering that as part of their holistic total financial planning approach.
00:07:40
Speaker
It's just an it's another avenue, another method that that advisor can provide advice and help their client at at what will be the biggest, potentially most of the time, the biggest liquidity event of their of their careers.
00:07:54
Speaker
Great. So that in mind, given that, you know, a lot of advisors maybe haven't been doing this traditionally in their careers, can you share any type of ah tools or information ah for some of our listeners to help them get started and and and have those conversations with with
Skyway Capital's Industry Focus and Educational Support
00:08:09
Speaker
clients? so so So what's interesting, Ryan, is that um we actually have a a ah library of materials um at our firm that we use and for advisors.
00:08:21
Speaker
um you know We have things like little monthly reminders about this was a transaction that occurred you know last month, and this is something that you might share with your client.
00:08:34
Speaker
Oh, my goodness. there was a elect There was an HVAC company that got sold last month, and it just it just started me thinking, Mr. Client, wow, you're you're in ah in a similar type business. This is a conversation we should have.
00:08:47
Speaker
But we have we have a we have a whole education package together. that's driven by ah a a monthly outreach to each advisor. And um you know through the partnership with TradePMR, we'll be able to work on work work on connecting and talking and reaching out to each one of the advisors on a pretty regular basis.
00:09:07
Speaker
Great. And I guess real quick before we move to wrap up, are there any and there are types of deals that you guys try to avoid? Do you do you work with anyone under the sun? or there I know you said there there's a kind of area of focus, a specialization, but anything you guys like to stay away from? um So the the only thing that we we don't do is we're not, um we we don't do M&A for RIAs, okay? Okay. You know, I know that there's a pretty active M&A market out there for the RIA industry, but that's not something we do.
00:09:35
Speaker
We focus on five main industry sectors. We're talking about business services, industrials, healthcare, financial services, and technology and telecom. And that's our area focus.
00:09:47
Speaker
um We're pretty much generalist within that area. But we've sold just about every kind of business you can imagine over over the last 23 years. And we we we sold a business a year and a half ago in Silicon Valley. we where where we are now Our footprint is it's a national footprint.
00:10:04
Speaker
got So we could sell businesses just about anywhere, Bill. Yeah, let me sneak in one more question if
Importance of Early Advisor Involvement in Business Sales
00:10:08
Speaker
I can, Ryan. um I think that um one of the things I'm hearing, which I'm a little bit concerned about here, is that ah do you wait for the client to tell you that they want to sell? Or how does the advisor begin to, you know, we talked about getting into the conversation as their, in most cases, their largest asset.
00:10:28
Speaker
um And I think that when you talk about an annual review you do with a client, it may be worthwhile for them to start to look at doing annual review with them on their business and where they are in that life cycle, right? To get the conversation going.
00:10:42
Speaker
Because the question I really want to ask you is this. It's not a snap of the finger when someone decides to sell. What a kind of what are the kind of hurdles that you see the business owners have to jump through to get there and that has an implication on ah where the advisor is going to sit in those kind of conversations yeah bill that's a good point too because it is a long process and there's a lot of emotion in this for the business owner the of that family-owned business when they're considering a you know a transaction to sell the business
00:11:16
Speaker
um And the the earlier you can have that conversation, the better, because, you know, if they're if they're thinking about a couple of years out, that's kind of ideal. um And because there are planning opportunities, OK?
00:11:30
Speaker
And the the planning opportunities are are dramatic. um An example is um at the point in time that you get a business that we get an LOI.
00:11:41
Speaker
um and a and ah and a private equity buyer has said, we will pay $80 million dollars for that business, that l LOI literally becomes the value of that business that day.
00:11:53
Speaker
Therefore, if you haven't the last couple of years, if you wanted to give some of that stock to your children, if you wanted to transfer it to other heirs, if you wanted to have any tax and planning issues, those issues need to be done prior to that moment in time.
00:12:09
Speaker
And so, Ideally a couple years out, okay? um But you know we we have a lot of firms that we do business with that are in the, what do we call the pre-exit planning business too.
00:12:21
Speaker
And so if we get potential clients that are you know four or five years out and they need a good bit of work done and and consulting to get to the point to exit, we have firms that we would we can refer them to that do that specific kind of work.
00:12:35
Speaker
And that yeah that's a great point, Roger, because as you said, a lot of business owners think they need a valuation before they sell. But once that number is, you know, put in stone, if you will, you know, that sets the wheels in motion. And all that tax planning you're talking about should have been done. All the distribution, perhaps, of equity should have been done well before we get to that point. So that's a great lesson for people to take away. Yeah, thank you. You're absolutely right.
00:13:02
Speaker
Okay, Ryan, why we wrap it up? Yeah, I'll wrap it up. so So, Roger, what we do here on the podcast is we close out by giving our listeners, wherever they are, sort of one actionable takeaway, something that they could bring back to their practice and and in place to make a difference. So if you were giving them one piece of advice about everything we've talked about today, what would that be?
00:13:21
Speaker
That one piece of advice would be to make sure the next time you're talking to your business client, you you absolutely bring up that question. Have they thought about selling their business?
00:13:32
Speaker
And then the the action item after that would be to pick up the phone and call us and contact us because we could help them very, very quickly ascertain if that's if that's a transaction that might fit for us to help them with.
00:13:45
Speaker
Great. Fantastic. Well, that's great answer, and thank you so much for joining us. Yeah, thank you. i appreciate it very much, Bill and Ryan. That was great insight, Roger, and thanks for sharing it. And thank you to anyone listening out there. Wherever you got this podcast, take a moment to like, subscribe, comment, share with your friends.
00:14:02
Speaker
All of that stuff helps the algorithm, helps get the podcast to more people. We really appreciate you, and follow us on social media so you can catch the next episode. And I want to add my thanks to you as well. And as Ryan said, please watch for our next episode where we'll bring you more insights and actionable ideas designed to help you grow your business.
00:14:21
Speaker
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Speaker
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00:16:50
Speaker
Please contact the provider for information about their terms and conditions as well as any fees that may apply.
00:17:03
Speaker
If you want to join the conversation or connect with us, please visit us at SynergizePodcast.com. This content is provided for general information purposes only. The views expressed by non-affiliated guest speakers are their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Trade PMR or its affiliates.
00:17:21
Speaker
Trade PMR and its affiliates do not endorse any guest speakers or their companies and therefore give no assurances as to the quality of their products and services. This channel is not monitored by Trade PMR. Trade PMR does not provide investment advice, tax advice, or legal advice.
00:17:37
Speaker
Trade PMR is a member of FINRA and SIPC. Trade PMR Inc. is registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, and the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board, MSRB, Trade PMR provides brokerage and account services to registered investment advisors. Custodial services provided by First Clearing.
00:17:55
Speaker
First Clearing is a trade name used by Wells Fargo Clearing Services, LLC. Member SIPC, a registered broker dealer and non-bank affiliate of Wells Fargo and Company. Copyright 2025, Trade PMR Inc. For a transcript of this episode with sources, visit synergizedpodcast.com.