Transition Your Practice on Your Terms.
A Different Path for Your Practice Transition
There’s no one-size-fits-all transition. We help you understand the private transition path and decide what makes the most sense for you and your goals.
A private transition usually fits when
- You want a clean break rather than three to five more years under someone else's employment agreement
- Maximum cash at closing matters more to you than a higher number spread across an earnout
- You already have a successor in mind, whether that's an associate, a partner, or a doctor down the road
- Your practice is strong but smaller than the EBITDA threshold most groups will look at
- Keeping your team, your name, and your way of treating patients intact is non-negotiable
A group partnership usually fits better when
- Your practice has the scale and growth curve that draws competitive institutional bidding
- You want to monetize now but keep practicing for several more years
- Rollover equity and a potential second bite are attractive to you
- You want the administrative side lifted off your plate entirely
"Can't my attorney and CPA just handle this?"
You need both, and we’ll work alongside them. But there are three jobs in a private transition that neither one is doing, and they’re the three that decide what the deal is actually worth.
Pricing it
Your attorney papers the price you agreed to. Nobody in that room is independently establishing what the practice should trade for, or defending the number when it’s challenged. A price set by the buyer’s lender or the buyer’s accountant is not a negotiated price.
Negotiating it
Price is one term. Allocation, working capital, holdback, restrictive covenants, equipment and lease liabilities, and how accounts receivable are treated all move real dollars. These get decided before the attorneys are handed anything to draft.
Running it
Someone has to keep the lender, both attorneys, both accountants, the landlord, and the other side moving in the same direction. When that job falls to the buyer and seller, deals stall, and stalled private deals are the ones that die.
What we look for that you won't
A tax return tells you what the practice earned. It doesn’t tell you whether it will keep earning that once the seller’s name comes off the door.
Whether revenue is durable or propped up by one payer, one referrer, or one big year.
The clearest signal of whether the patient base is genuinely active or aging out.
How many charts are real, and what the trend has been for three years.
How much production walks out the door with the person selling it to you.
Deferred capital expense and lease terms that quietly change the price you’re paying.
Compensation, credentialing, and contract terms you’ll inherit on day one.
Sell to the right doctor, not the first one who asks.
A private transition doesn’t have to mean walking away on a Friday. There are several structures, and the one you choose shapes your last few years of ownership as much as your first year of retirement.
Full value at closing, a defined transition period, then done.
Bring on the buyer, prove the fit, then sell into a known quantity.
Sell a share now, share governance, exit the balance on a schedule.
Sell the practice, stay clinical part-time on terms you set.
Same seven lenses. Every deal, every size.
A private transition gets the identical evaluation we run on an institutional one. The highest bid is rarely the best outcome, and that’s just as true when the bidder is the doctor across town.
Every economic factor in the deal, assessed and maximized.
Whether this buyer belongs in your next chapter.
Financial and lifestyle impact, modeled side by side.
What every other option on the table would mean for you.
What you want life to look like after the deal closes.
Whether market, career, and personal timing align.
Your tolerance, and each partner's effect on it.
Get an honest, confidential estimate with no obligation.
The Path to a Successful Private Transition
Private transitions offer flexibility and control, but a successful outcome starts with a process designed around what matters most to you.
- DISCOVER (Steps 1-3)
Understanding Your Goals
We define success on your terms, establish what the practice is worth, and pressure-test whether a private transition is genuinely the right structure for what you want.
Confidential discovery call and honest read on timing
Valuation, cash flow normalization, and a defensible price
Positioning, readiness, and the gaps a buyer will find
- EXECUTION (Steps 4-6)
Getting To Agreed Terms
Whether your buyer is already identified or still needs finding, we confirm they are credible and financeable, then negotiate the terms that decide what the deal is actually worth.
Buyer identification, or vetting of a buyer you already have
Negotiation across price, allocation, holdback, and covenants
A letter of intent structured to hold up
- CLOSE (Steps 7-8)
Closing with Confidence
Diligence and lending are where private deals stall. We manage both, work alongside your attorney to the signature, and stay available through the handoff to your team and patients.
Due diligence managed and lender requirements coordinated
Legal review, close, and post-close transition support
Frequently Asked Questions
Never on the same transaction. Dual representation is a conflict, and our entire value is that we’re on one side of the table, and it’s yours. We advise sellers in private transitions and, separately, we advise buyers on their own acquisitions. If both parties to a deal approach us, one of them gets a referral to independent counsel rather than a compromised advisor.
On the headline number, usually yes. Institutional buyers price off EBITDA and can pay multiples a private buyer can’t reach. But the headline isn’t what you take home. Private deals typically pay a much higher share in cash at closing, without an earnout to hit or a multi-year employment agreement to serve, and the net after tax and risk is often closer than owners expect. Comparing the two honestly is the point of our framework, and it’s the analysis we run before you commit to either path.
Often that’s the best outcome available. The clinical fit is proven, the patients already know them, and the transition risk is far lower. What associate deals need is structure. Pricing, financing, and the timeline all have to be set before the conversation gets personal, because these are the transitions most likely to go sideways on relationship rather than economics.
Typically three to six months from engagement to close, against six to twelve for an institutional deal. The main variables are lender timing, landlord consent on the lease, and how prepared the financials were when we started.
You don’t need a final commitment, but you should be prequalified. It tells you what you can actually afford, gives you standing against buyers who haven’t done it, and materially speeds up the negotiation. We can make introductions to lenders who specialize in practice acquisition regardless of which engagement you choose.
Then representation isn’t what you need yet. The Advisory Program exists for exactly that window: understand what the practice is worth now, what buyers reward, and what would move the number while there’s still time to act on the answers.