Determining Cultural Fit: 25 Key Questions

2. Describe your leadership style. Are you directive and hands-on, or hands-off and more of an “oversight” leader?

3. What is the philosophy regarding policy and procedures and rule-adherence at your firm? Would you consider yourselves to be risk-adverse or to be creative problem-solvers who do what’s needed but don’t prioritize risk?

4. What leadership styles do you best connect with? Describe the type of leader you admire and would want to work closely with.

5. What style and approach would represent “sameness” to your current leadership team? What might represent a complement? When talking to a potential partner or acquisition, which of the following questions will you ask to gauge their approach?

• • How do they deal with conflict?
  • What ground rules for communication do they value?
  • How do they “discipline”?
  • How do they reward?
  • How do they believe their team perceives them and their leadership approach?

6. Use these questions to assist in describing the vision for your practice or firm:

• • Is pure growth as important as profitability or do you look at both? How do you measure this?
  • Do you want fewer, more profitable clients or do you want to serve as many clients as possible?
  • Is efficiency important? If so, how do you measure and track this?
  • Do you have an ideal client/niche defined? Do you want one?
  • Do you have diversity in your practice and/or do you strive for this?

7. What does success look like overall to this newly merged venture in the next year? Five years? 10 years?

8. What is your growth strategy and how has it worked? Which of the following do you plan to focus on post-merger?

• • Organic growth versus inorganic growth
  • Family wealth planning
  • Technological-based offerings
  • Fee driven versus product-driven
  • Hiring a direct business development professional
  • Sales training for advisors
  • Other

9. How do you develop your employees? What is your philosophy on performance feedback, training and career pathing?

10. What credentials do most of your team members hold? What credentials do you require? What support do you offer for ongoing educational development?

11. How do you establish compensation? What is your philosophy and approach to new and tenured employees?

12. Do you have a formal HR program? Do you have a person in HR leadership?

13. Can employees earn equity in the firm? Is it clear how to do this?

14. What will be the impact of the transaction on your team? Will anyone be displaced? Is retention a key goal?

15. Have you defined the roles for each person in your practice and the merging/acquiring practice? Where is there duplication of effort? What roles will change and why?

16. In many transactions there can be a perception of winners versus losers. Have you considered team member’s perceptions of this for both practices? What will the impact be on them?

17. What will change with the client experience? What similarities and differences do each of the practices have in serving clients? How can you establish which approach will be the best one to keep to ensure alignment throughout the newly formed firm?

18. What goals do you have to acquire new talent, knowledge, or areas of focus (products/services) for this merger? If a goal is purely financial, it often misses important underlying business considerations.

19. Are your investment approaches compatible? What might have to change for one team or the other? How will you bring about these changes?

20. What do you do to establish risk and risk parameters for your client accounts? How does this connect to what the merging practice does today?

21. What is your current spend on marketing? How important is marketing to your efforts? Where do you focus your marketing dollars?

22. What parts of your B/D resource network, platform, or custodial firm do you use on a regular basis to meet client needs? What are the non-negotiable “must keep” items for you, and for the merging advisor or practice?

23. What third-party relationships are meaningful to your firm? Comparing your list to the merging advisor, are there duplicates or redundancy? How will you decide which relationships are most important to the new firm?

24. What obstacles or concerns do you have about this merger that have not been discussed with the merging advisor/practice? How will you raise these in a comfortable and collaborative way?

25. What will be needed for the newly merged firm that hasn’t been discussed (operational support, compliance, administrative support and so on)?

Your firm should consider all of these questions. The advisor or practice you are considering acquiring or merging with should go through the same questions separately. From there, you can bring together your answers for a more objective discussion. Sometimes people are inclined to say “fine with me!” when having general conversations. To increase your chances of success, you want to engage in these discussions long before you strike a financial deal.

Beverly Flaxington co-founded The Collaborative, a consulting firm devoted to business building for the financial services industry, in 1995. The firm also founded and manages the Advisors Sales Academy. The firm has won the Wealthbriefing WealthTech award for Best Training Solution for 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025. Beverly is currently an adjunct professor at Suffolk University teaching undergraduate and graduate students Entrepreneurship and Leading Teams. She is a Certified Professional Behavioral Analyst (CPBA) and Certified Professional Values Analyst (CPVA).

She has spent over 25 years in the investment industry and has been featured in Selling Power Magazine and quoted in hundreds of media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, MSNBC.com, Investment News and Solutions Magazine for the FPA. She speaks frequently at investment industry conferences and is a speaker for the CFA Institute.

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