Thursday 24 May

Seminar Session 3

Stream 1

Andy Halstead, chief executive, Erinaceous Services

Grant Ellis, chief executive, Broker Network

Kieran Marsh, chief executive, Marsh Corporate Consulting

Take two very similar brokers, both have the same GWP, both have similar structures, both employ the same number of employees. But one will be valued significantly higher than the other. Why? What factors would make your firm more attractive to a buyer?

Even if you are not thinking about selling your business in the next year or two, this seminar is a must for any broker principal thinking about succession planning, exit strategies or even for those still committed to investing and building growth.

Andy Halstead, Grant Ellis and Kieran Marsh will have all the answers for you. They will look at the best ways to achieve value, pose some difficult and awkward questions about your business plans, your staff training, your sales strategies and your ambitions and give you their perspectives on the best way forward for your business.

Remember, you can't save your way to glory and there's no such thing as equilibrium. Your business is either shrinking or growing. This 50-minute session might just unlock the key to your future wealth. Miss it at your peril!

Andy Halstead has an outstanding track record of delivering growth in the retail financial services and property investment markets. He has built and rejuvenated sales forces and multi-distribution channels with exceptional success.

A professional and highly skilled negotiator Halstead has secured many deals which have added value to his organisation and its customers. Previously sales director at AMP Financial Services, and before that vice president, director of distribution at AIG in New York, he is now group sales and marketing director of Erinaceous Group and chief executive of Erinaceous Insurance Services.

Grant Ellis is a chartered insurance broker and has spent most of his working life in the insurance and financial services sectors. An insurance broker since 1976, and an FPC qualified, though no longer practicing IFA, he is a non-executive director of the Ellis Bates group of companies as well as a founder and chief executive of the Broker Network. He is also a regular commentator on the insurance industry.

Kieran Marsh qualified as one of the youngest accountants in the UK and worked for a multinational, spending nine-months at its in Switzerland head office working with the worldwide head of finance. At the age of 24 and armed with a masters degree in finance from the Bradford Management Centre Kieran wanted to be number one.

In 1990, after 11 years as a group finance director culminating at plc level, Marsh formed a corporate finance business. The company works extensively throughout the insurance sector with brokers of all sizes and leading insurers.