With the estate planning industry undergoing significant merger and acquisition activity the Today’s Wills and Probate podcast welcomes on one of the most active proponents to discuss what businesses can do to make themselves appealing to the acquisitive organisations.
Tishya Ray, who leads corporate development and strategic partnerships at Octopus Legacy joins host David Opie to share insight into how acquiring firms assess value, manage hidden liabilities, and deploy data-driven modelling to scale within a traditionally fragmented industry.
Ray outlines details of the Octopus model for profiling organisations and understanding their reasoning for sale; which varies hugely and can be for any number of factors. While understandably coy on some of the intellectual property that has gone into Octopus” acquisition strategy, Ray does provide plenty of insight for professionals on what steps they might take now, to realise the full potential of their business’ future value.
Will banks is an obvious starting point; a single stored will acts as a powerful multi-generational client flywheel. In the short term, holding a valid document enables lifetime estate planning revenue through will updates, rewrites, and necessary upserves including Lasting Powers of Attorney (LPAs) or property trusts. Long-term, when a death notification is received, it unlocks the opportunity to provide distinct bereavement guidance alongside high-margin probate conversion. This process ultimately introduces the firm to an average of four beneficiaries, who frequently convert into estate planning customers themselves, creating a compounding growth network.
This is where firms need to be acting now; there is a clear “value ladder” for firms considering an exit strategy where value increases based on the contractability and actionability of a record. A bare client name with an out-of-date address sits at the lowest rung, while the premium tier consists of a legally valid, physically stored “qualifying will” attached to an up-to-date client who has consented to marketing and pays recurring storage or amendment fees. This predictable annuity line allows acquirers to value a firm on a revenue multiple rather than a transactional, one-off basis.
Hidden liabilities like poorly documented pre-sold executor packages are also a re flag for acquirers.
Ray concludes that while the motivation to sell varies, the position a founder sells from is dictated by the systems and compliance they implement in the years prior. By standardising files, maintaining clear data consent, and ensuring robust client communication paths, firms can successfully build to last and build to sell.
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Thank you to our podcast sponsors LEAP Estates, Property Ladder Group and Finders International.
