Bio for DAVID GRAU SR., JD
At age 65, I feel like I'm starting over, by choice, and after a very successful and rewarding career. I retired from my last post for all of about 24 hours and then channeled my energy, ideas and passion into this new, broader venture - bringing experience, expertise and direction to the Professional Services world of Succession Planning. It is what I know and it is what I enjoy. I also have a passion for teaching. Some of my favorite presentations involve a couple of whiteboards, a small room of professional service providers, and three to four hours to sculpt or resculpt the future. Hopefully, that's why you're here reading this.
Business succession planning is what I know, and I know things about this subject matter that most others do not. As one of the few, truly experienced and knowledgeable people in the world of small business Succession Planning, I started out as a securities regulator and securities attorney. That matters because moving stock or equity around is the key to the mechanics. of the process. I cannot imagine how anyone could venture to consult or hold themselves out as an expert on this subject matter without such a background. I’ve spent more than half my life putting businesses together, making them stronger, sometimes perpetuating them, and sometimes selling them - and then teaching that to multiple generations of entrepreneurs. It’s what I do for fun. Now, in my semi-retired state, I focus solely on succession planning for Professional Service owners and leave the selling and M&A work to others; sometimes that is how the story ends. But to be sure, it is your story, and I can help you write it however you wish.
As for where I’ve been and how I got here, at least on the publishing front, I authored the best-selling book, Succession Planning for Financial Advisors: Building an Enduring Business, published by Wiley & Sons in 2014. My second book, Buying, Selling and Valuing Financial Practices, was published in 2016. I have also written over 90 nationally published articles via a monthly magazine column, white papers, and manuals on continuity issues, income perpetuation strategies, mergers and acquisitions, succession planning, tax strategies, synthetic equity, and internal ownership tracks. I was named one of the most influential people in the professional services world of wealth management in an industry survey by Financial Planning Magazine, and I was also honored to be named one of Investment News magazine’s 2017 Icons and Innovators for my work and thinking on professional services business perpetuation.
In terms of where we might go together, I know how professional service businesses work. I understand the licensing and regulatory aspects often required in the operation of these unique business models. I get that your business is not defined by how many widgets you have sitting on the loading dock waiting to be shipped out. Your inventory is knowledge and experience. Providing services as a passionate, well-educated individual is totally different from other business models - and so is the succession planning route.
One of the few things I like more than writing is traveling. I'm at home in an airport or in the air. Traveling is a humbling experience - one moment you're on top of the world, looking down, immersed in the quiet of your thoughts, and the next, you are one of a 100,000 people packed into a series of concourses all trying to get someplace in a hurry during a thunderstorm.
With over 2 million miles and counting, I’ve presented over a thousand presentations and workshops to date in 48 different States (missing North Dakota and Arkansas, but there’s still time). If you need a speaker on this subject matter at your annual conference, please have the folks in charge reach out to me.
Thank you for taking the time to visit my site and learn more about my story. I look forward to hearing about yours.