When Jon Lancaster was ready to retire he called up a national advice firm to buy his client book.
Little did he know that his eventual successor was a lot closer to home and that passing on the business to his son would turn out a far easier process than selling it to a competitor.
After concerns were raised during talks with a large competitor, including by his clients, circumstances slowly aligned for Jon and Ben and they began exploring a takeover strategy of Jon's 20 per cent stake in the Cosgrove Partnership in earnest.
"I realised," says Ben, "I was always going to be an employee and I wasn't going to be in charge of my own future, I wasn't gonna be able to control how things are done.
"And really I just felt the stars align. Dad wanted to retire, he'd looked at a few different options that for various reasons didn't feel quite right, I was having a few frustrations at my previous firm...and we started having the conversation."
Jon and Ben entered an earn out model, whereby the fee income from clients is used to pay Jon's share of the business over the next 4-5 years.
After that Ben will have taken over the client book and run it as his own business.
But it has not always been easy, and despite being aligned on a lot of things, they explain it's still a complicated and long-winded process.
In this better business podcast Ben and Jon talk to us about their succession process, reflecting on what has gone well and what they would not rush to do again.
carmen.reichman@ft.com
