A note · on advisor change
"What's Going to Happen to Me?"
I came across this article this week and found myself reading it a few times.
Gillian Hepburn, Vanguard UK's head of adviser sales, described her own experience as a client after her adviser was acquired.
Her first question wasn't about the portfolio.
It was: "What's going to happen to me?"
That line stuck with me.
Because I've spent a lot of time thinking about what clients experience during advisor transitions, M&A deals, successions, reassignments. And what I keep coming back to is this:
The business logic of the deal often moves faster than the trust logic.
The firm completes the transition.
The client starts quietly reassessing.
And here's what makes it harder to catch: most clients won't tell you. They'll say "that's fine." They'll show up to the next meeting. And still, confidence can start drifting in ways the firm doesn't see until it's already moved.
The article also flagged something I think is genuinely underestimated, only 20% of clients who have already inherited retain the prior advisor. And only 22% of advisors engage with both partners in a household.
That's not just a service gap. That's a valuation gap hiding in plain sight.
I'm curious what others are seeing.
If you've been through a firm acquisition, an advisor transition, or advised clients through one, what did the client side of that actually look like?