What is the Best Approach to Fees Acquisition?
The passive approach versus the proactive approach — updated for 2026
There are two main ways to go about acquiring fees: the passive approach, and the proactive approach. Both can work — but you’ll never know which suits you until you try.
Is buying fees a realistic option at all?
Day in, day out, we take calls from newly qualified practitioners looking to set up in practice, from practitioners looking to grow what they already have, from ambitious employees hoping to step out on their own, and from non-accountancy investors looking to add a practice to their existing business. It’s a fair question whether there are enough fees to go round for everyone. There aren’t — but that’s no reason not to try, because you’ll certainly never succeed if you don’t.
The passive approach
If you want to grow through acquisition, the first step is registering your interest with every broker and agent you can find, then posting your requirement on any relevant forums. After that: stay alert, and be genuinely open to considering everything that crosses your path. Opportunities to buy do come up — sometimes they’ll suit, sometimes they won’t, but the process of weighing each one on its own merits puts you in the best position to act decisively when the right one appears. A good broker will make sure this process doesn’t eat up too much of your time, that you’re armed with the knowledge you need, and that you’re properly supported throughout, rather than left to work it out alone.
The proactive approach
If you’re genuinely serious, it’s worth considering retaining an M&A professional to search on your behalf. A broker can approach the market for you, identifying opportunities you’d likely never see otherwise, and putting you ahead of the competition. It comes at a cost, and for some it yields nothing — but for many it opens up options that would never otherwise have surfaced, and in a market where a growing number of consolidators are also actively searching for acquisitions, having someone working the phones on your behalf can matter more than ever.
In one case, we were retained by someone unhappy in their employed role, who dreamed of buying a small block of fees so they could leave that job behind and service the acquired clients from home alongside the handful they already had. It was a small requirement, and there was every chance we wouldn’t succeed — but effecting solutions of exactly this kind is one of the things we do best. Through our efforts we found a number of practitioners who were, in fact, ready to dispose of smaller or less lucrative client blocks so they could focus on their more complex, higher-value work. A suitable block was found quickly, a deal was agreed, and both sides came away satisfied.
The nudge that starts a sale
Plenty of practitioners are close to ready to sell but haven’t yet found the time, or the nerve, to pick up the phone and start the process. A well-timed approach on behalf of an ambitious purchaser can be exactly the prompt that gets things moving — and that can change everything, for both parties. In the meantime, feelers put out on your behalf need only half an hour or so a week to keep the marketplace warm while you get on with running your practice.