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Episode 17: Connecting with the Right Deal Partners, with Mary Ann Buchanan

Episode #17

Mary Ann Buchanan is the CEO and a co-founder of RIA Match, a consultancy and digital platform that offers succession planning assistance and growth solutions to financial advisors. Mary Ann has worked in the wealth management industry for more than thirty years, and she is an experienced speaker and respected industry panelist.

In her thought leadership work, Mary Ann specializes in overcoming human bias in succession planning, mergers, and acquisitions by using a systematic approach to help clients make good decisions. She has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, InvestmentNews, Financial-planning.com, Financial Advisor IQ, and RIAbiz. She has written articles for WealthManagement.com, OnWallStreet.com and Investment News.

What You Will Learn:

  • Mary Ann shares her lifelong love of business and discusses reading the Wall Street Journal at around twelve years old. She talks about joining the oldest brokerage firm in Washington, D.C. straight out of college, and she shares the valuable lessons she learned there.
  • Learn what services RIA Match provides to its clients, including matching advisors with partners to do M&A deals. Mary Ann shares some of the challenges sellers face, as well as the surprising 50/1 ratio of buyers to sellers.
  • Mary Ann shares what makes a good match between partners, and she shares why focusing solely on the numbers can often cause a deal to implode. She explains why cultural alignment is critical for any deal.
  • Learn how the RIA Match process works, what information is collected, and what criteria are used to match your firm with another compatible firm. Mary Ann shares a checklist of important data points you should think about in your firm.
  • Mary Ann discusses her own entrepreneurial journey and the lessons she learned. She shares her passion for her work and discusses a strategic alliance she has built with a tech partner to help further the growth of her business.

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