Project Benjamin focused on a top ten independent broker dealer with AUM of over $650 billion. Benjamin had recently acquired two firms and was entering into a process to acquire a third, which had approximately $100 billion of AUM. Meanwhile, the staff-to-advisor rate had grown precipitously since 2020 while margins had experienced compression. The goal of the Project Benjamin was to reap the underwritten synergies of the three acquisitions and to further reduce both staff and non-staff costs within the original entity with an objective of overdelivering on the three transaction-related value creation opportunities. In summary, Cynthia delivered a net improvement to EBIDTA of 13% within 15 months, over-delivering on all underwritten aspects of the acquisitions, with the highest costs reduced earlier in the process.
About
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Growth Add-On/Carve-Out – Led derivatives migration workstream and market data vendor contract negotiation for whole-entity add-on of legacy variable annuity block acquired as a Strategic. Services included consolidating and optimizing market data spend as well as migration of long asset portfolio in the accounting book of records, and novation of Seller derivatives (futures, options, complex structured equity index swaps) to Indigo throughout the broker community.
Consulting Services
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Growth Add-On/Carve-Out – Led derivatives migration workstream and market data vendor contract negotiation for whole-entity add-on of legacy variable annuity block acquired as a Strategic. Services included consolidating and optimizing market data spend as well as migration of long asset portfolio in the accounting book of records, and novation of Seller derivatives (futures, options, complex structured equity index swaps) to Indigo throughout the broker community.
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Integration Leadership – Throughout the overall project, Cynthia collaborated with management to enable the Benjamin teams to ensure that the multiple acquisitions, TSA exits, and vendor-staff integration activities
were all completed on time.
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Reduce Vendor Costs – With respect to non-staff (vendor) costs, Cynthia delivered 20% greater than the underwritten synergies. She accomplished this through off-shoring, out-sourcing, consolidation of competing vendors and redundant services, negotiating pricing and revenue sharing agreements, re-negotiating disfavorable MSA and SOW terms, researching and terminating over 300 vendors costing less than $10k a piece, and leveraging scale and capacity within the acquiring entity contracts. Cynthia also led an AI implementation for communication surveillance, which enabled a material reduction of insurance and claims expenses. Lastly, she implanted a vendor engagement and oversight program for material vendors with greater than $1 million in annual spend, to enable strategic and competitive vendor negotiations led by management going forward.
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Reduce Staff Costs – With respect to staff costs, Cynthia walked the leadership team through a staff cost reduction of 20% through three waves. The waves covered a standard reduction in force, a first principals spans and layers retitling exercise, and consolidation of siloed departments. Additionally, Cynthia negotiated contractor rate cards, worked with HR to implement improved controls over contractors, and moved off-shore software development staff towards a single provider with top-side, scaled discounts.