MWA Financial is an Independent Financial Advisor platform that consolidates advisors. Coniston Capital has invested a large amount of growth capital to fund the acquisition strategy.
MWA Financial already owns five IFA firms and a combined Assets Under Advice total of approximately PS450 million. MWA Financial, with this investment and the five other Coniston Capital investments planned for the coming year, will be a major player in the UK IFA market and wealth management.
Brachers advised MWA Financial. Stephenson Harwood was the advisor for Coniston Capital.
Both MWA Financial (MWA Financial) and Coniston Capital were advised by the Client Relationship Consultancy.
Coniston Capital invests in UK based SMEs who require a partner that can facilitate a change in ownership and help them achieve their growth goals.
MWA Financial provides independent financial advice. The company, which has been developing financial advice platforms in Australia for more than 25 years, is now preparing to replicate its holistic advice model for the UK. Ed Rosengarten is the chairman of MWA Financial, and Cam Banks leads the management team.
CRC is the pioneer of B2B relationship intelligence. It provides a scalable system for strategic relationship management and customer feedback that protects businesses against risk and uncovers new opportunities.
Q&A with Emma Hillary Consultant at CRC
Q: What were your involvement and responsibilities on this project?
We evaluated MWA Financial’s client relationships to help with the due diligence process.
Due diligence traditionally looks at financial, legal and commercial aspects of an enterprise. You may think you’re seeing great numbers, but what if 40% of them are false?
Investors will not get the return they are looking for if the client is unhappy and close to terminating the relationship.
This is where the fourth pillar – Relationship Due Diligence – comes in. It evaluates the company’s relationships with its clients. Our core service TRR (The Reference Rating) was used to deliver this. This is a B2B feedback system that includes a two-question survey with a strategic formulation and an in-depth analysis of client feedback.
We then analysed the customer feedback and ratings using NLP and behavioural science, as well as our hundreds of benchmarks for industry and business relationships.
MWA Financial achieved strong TRR — an unquestionable proof of both the business’s value and its strength. The data and insights gathered by MWA Financial allowed them to identify their strengths, and identify a path of improvement which can lead to a better ROI sooner.
Q: What specific steps did you take to ensure that both businesses were treated equally?
Our core service is a simple, outcome-driven approach.
We surveyed key contacts in different roles, according to their seniority, and by advisor. This gave us a 360-degree view of MWA Financial’s account. To tailor our analysis, we first surveyed MWA Financial clients to determine who would be most helpful to MWA Financial.
We launched a 2-week email survey to collect feedback after the database was completed and the communication for the survey had been finalised. The survey only takes 20 seconds to 2 minutes, allowing us to achieve a response rate of 60%, higher than the industry average.
After a few days, the MFA Financial Customer Relationship Assessment was completed.
We wanted to ensure that each party got a lot of attention. So I had two executive review sessions. One with Coniston Financial and another with MWA Financial. In these sessions we discussed their TRR in detail, shared relevant industry benchmarks and provided objective analysis on what the qualitative data and quantitative data revealed.
Q: In what way did your knowledge of client relations help you in this project exactly?
To translate client feedback accurately, it is important to distinguish between transactional and relational aspects of a relationship.
If left unaddressed, transactional issues like efficiency, timeliness or attention to detail can negatively impact a relationship. What most businesses fail to realize is that relationship factors such as customer service, understanding and ease of working with them are often at the core of complaints about transactional matters.
Relationships are one of the most effective and underused levers to drive commercial growth.
We can spot early warning signs and identify untapped business opportunities with 19 years of experience and data. As a consultant with 19 years of experience, we can identify untapped opportunities and spot the early warning signs of looming relationship and commercial risks.
This gives MWA Financial complete visibility into the health of its client accounts, and a partner that’s ready to support them in building high-performance relationships.
Coniston Capital is a private equity firm that invests in the possibility of a faster return on investment.
What challenges did you face in this project?
Both MWA Financial, and Coniston Capital, invested from the beginning in facilitating an evaluation of MWA Financial’s client relationships. This was done to identify any potential risks as quickly as possible. This was a significant help.
We surveyed MWA Financial clients in August due to the timing of the investment, and the need for rapid visibility. This is traditionally a time to avoid because of holidays and lower response rates. We were able to send out the survey in less than a week and we didn’t notice a big drop in response rates.
MWA Financial has a TRR rating above average and a level of client advocacy that is well above the industry norm. This is a testament to their advisors’ focus on relationships.
Q: What is the next step for CRC
We look forward to working with MWA Financial in the future to help them expand and grow, and by extension allow Coniston Capital a better return on investment.
CRC has also seen a number of exciting developments in 2023.
Our team has grown to over 100 consultants, data scientists and software engineers on five continents.
We have analysed customer feedback from more than 90 countries this year. Nearly 750 000 responses were received. Also, we received ISO 27001 certification and launched an API and mobile app.
What’s most exciting about our investment is that it will combine customer feedback analysis with two decades of industry benchmarks and NLP-powered AI-powered sentiment analysis. Coniston Financial and MWA Financial will benefit from a better understanding of their business relationships, and a more thorough evaluation of risk and opportunity.
Next year, we’ll share more information about the new products.
Q: What is the best way for companies to reach you with additional questions?
For more information, you can email me at [email protected] or visit our website www.clientrelationship.com