Business Transactions

Overview

The Hall & Wilcox Financial Services team is made up of commercial lawyers who are adept at managing a broad range of financial services business transactions, particularly those requiring a sophisticated understanding of complex commercial and regulatory issues.

With access to one of the largest and most respected taxation practices in Victoria, our team is able to provide clients with holistic commercial solutions, thereby avoiding exposure to potential risks. We advise on the full range of issues arising out of financial services business transactions, including:

financial advice on business sales and acquisitions, including share or asset transfer;
corporate and tax structuring (and re-structuring), taking into account the taxation objectives of both licensees and prospective
authorised representatives, where applicable;
Corporations Act and ASIC policy compliance;
M&A contracts;
business succession planning;
partnering agreements, including referral agreements, joint venture agreements, shareholders agreements and relationship agreements; and
authorised representative contracts, authorisation and services agreements and responsible officer agreements.

We understand that in commercial transactions involving financial services businesses that regulatory issues may arise due to the nature of the business. Our lawyers involved in financial services business transactions are able to identify those issues and manage them in the course of the transaction.

Experience

Our team has recently been involved in a number of significant financial services business transactions, which include:

acting for Sandhurst Trustees in relation to the transfer of trusteeship of the General Retirement Plan and the Pooled Investment Fund;
acting for AXA Australia and its related company, ipac, in relation to a number of equity partner transactions with advisers within its group;
acting for Financial Principles (a boutique financial planning business) in the acquisition of a substantial client list, as well as negotiating and preparing a consultancy agreement with the principal of the vendor company;
acting for The Money Managers in a number of financial adviser practice acquisitions and mergers;
acting for Haintz Financial Services in a number of financial adviser practice acquisitions, including the acquisition of a practice from MLC;
acting as a panel member for a subsidiary of MLC in respect of acting for its financial planning network on numerous financial adviser practice acquisitions and management buyouts, and developing a standardisation process and documents to facilitate further standard and efficient transactions;
established Vianova Asset Management joint venture; a joint venture in which Australian Unity holds a 50% interest;
acting in the sale of Kennedy Financial Services financial planning business to Bongornios;
acting for Intralink Financial Solutions and its shareholders in relation to various proposed share sales; and
acting for Superconsult (an Authorised and Broker Representative of Apogee) in the sale of its client list and business.

Expertise