Greg Keith, certified financial planner at Wealth Plan Atlantic in Saint John, has built a business focused on executive employees 10 years away from retirement.Greg Knudson/Supplied
In Buy the Book, advisors discuss their experiences acquiring a book of business, from practice valuation to client retention.
Greg Keith, a 45-year-old certified financial planner at Wealth Plan Atlantic Inc. in Saint John.
Like most university grads, Greg Keith just wanted to figure out what to do with his life.
Bored with his provincial government job in graphic design, Mr. Keith joined his father’s financial services firm for a summer. The experience taught him that strong familial relationships don’t necessarily translate into strong working relationships.
Still, he liked the work well enough and moved to a trainee position at a competing insurance company, working his way up to management for 10 years before making the transition to financial advice in 2018.
At that time, he launched his own firm, Keith Wealth Management. Like most advisors, he wanted to help clients and was enticed by the prospect of setting his own schedule and building a book.
It wasn’t smooth sailing. Retiring advisors, anxious to start their next chapters, would promote their books to Mr. Keith, who, at that point, felt like taking anyone with a pulse to get his business off the ground.
In June, 2024, he merged his firm with Wealth Plan Atlantic. Today, he has 225 clients, and works with two junior advisors, an administrative assistant he shares with another advisor, and an assistant whom he calls a “para-planner – someone who does a bit of everything, from tech support to planning recommendations.”
The book
In 2016, while still in insurance, he met the seller at a local Advocis chapter meeting at which they both volunteered. In 2022, the seller said she was leaving her advisory firm for a management position and was looking to sell her book.
She had 390 clients based in Moncton, 150 kilometres from Saint John. While a considerable distance, the seller felt Mr. Keith was a comprehensive financial planner. Not every client in her book fit his ideal profile, but there was enough alignment.
In December, 2022, Mr. Keith purchased the entire book, keeping 150 clients (80 per cent of the book’s assets under management), most in their mid-50s and approaching retirement. The remainder went to advisors at his firm who specialize in corporate planning, group insurance or health insurance.
The purchase
The seller wanted 3 times recurring revenue for the book. Mr. Keith paid 3.5 times. The higher price was because he agreed to pay the seller in instalments over 36 months, with 0.5 per cent interest. He factored what he would have paid a traditional lender into the overall price.
The clients he purchased brought in almost enough to service the debt, he says, and revenue from his existing clients covered the rest.
By December, 2025, he had paid off the book completely.
The transition
The seller was moving forward with her new job and didn’t participate much in the transition. She wrote a letter to the top clients, announcing her departure and introducing Mr. Keith, and forwarded all communication to him.
“I was fine with not a lot of involvement,” he says.
He did joint introductory meetings with clients and new advisors at his firm, who worked on developing relationships right away.
Mr. Keith’s associate advisor, who had worked for him for several years, was his secret weapon, helping him manage the new clients and get in front of them as quickly as possible.
Mr. Keith leased office space in Moncton, where the new clients were located. Many prefer kitchen-table meetings instead of virtual calls, and Mr. Keith has no trouble hitting the road, logging up to 50,000 kilometres a year travelling to Moncton, Halifax and Truro, N.S., from Saint John every month.
Clients are invested mostly in passive mutual funds. Many have lucrative pensions or stock options, and their homes are paid off.
He doesn’t foresee buying another book, now that his practice is established.
“I get enough referrals through marketing and social media. I’ve got to a place where I find my efforts better spent just going out and finding the client myself,” he says.
Advice for buyers
Know what you’re buying and why the seller wants to sell if they’re not retiring, Mr. Keith says. When he was starting, he concedes he bought a lot of clients he shouldn’t have.
“There was a good reason they were sold to me,” he says. “Either they were difficult to deal with or [there were] limited opportunities based on health and geography.”
That’s why he decided to cull the book he purchased.
Mr. Keith has established a niche for his business – executive employees 10 years away from retirement. His top clients are executives in C-suites for top firms in Atlantic Canada.
“We focus on employees, not business owners, and I’m not selling group insurance,” he says.
Are you a financial advisor or financial planner who recently bought a book of business? Globe Advisor would love to speak with you about your experience. Candour, especially around the finances, is appreciated, and your name and photo will be used for the column. Please e-mail dgage@globeandmail.com and include a brief synopsis of your situation.