Summary - From Accountant to Owner: How Financial Professionals Can Build Equity Through Business Acquisitions

This follow-up session will focus on case studies and participant questions, building on the concepts covered in Part 1. If you were unable to attend the first webinar, we encourage you to watch the recording beforehand to get the most value from this discussion.

Recording Part 1

Password: CPAQLDJun2026

Accountants are often closer to business ownership opportunities than they realise. Through their work with clients, financial performance and strategic decision-making, they gain early insight into growth opportunities, risks and succession challenges.

In this session, Bryan Santos will share practical strategies for moving beyond traditional accounting roles into equity participation, business acquisitions and board-level involvement. Drawing on real-world transaction experience across a range of industries, Bryan will explore how financial professionals can identify and evaluate opportunities, structure their pathway into ownership, and support clients through succession planning, management buyouts and acquisition-led growth.

The session will give attendees concrete tools and case studies they can apply straight away, including:

Succession structuring: how a retiring owner's business was transitioned to new principals funded entirely from the business's own cash flow

Leveraged and management buyouts: how a management team can fund a significant acquisition by leveraging the target business itself

Growth acquisitions: how a strategic acquisition was funded by leveraging across two related businesses

Lender appetite: what lenders are currently looking for when financing acquisitions of professional services businesses

Join the SME Discussion Group on 10 September on 'From Accountant to Owner: How Financial Professionals Can Build Equity Through Business Acquisitions' – Part 2.

Learning Outcomes:

Assess and evaluate opportunities for business ownership, acquisitions and equity participation by applying practical frameworks for identifying, structuring and supporting succession, management buyout and acquisition-led growth strategies.

Speaker

Bryan Santos

Bryan Santos is the founder of MAS (Merger & Acquisition Solutions), a boutique advisory firm helping professionals and business owners grow through strategic acquisitions and equity participation in privately held companies. He has spent more than two decades helping organisations improve profitability, strengthen cash flow and execute growth strategies, and has direct experience acquiring and holding equity across a range of SME sectors.

Through MAS, Bryan supports clients in evaluating acquisition opportunities, structuring transactions and developing practical pathways into business ownership. He regularly works with accountants and other business professionals seeking to transition from technical roles into equity participation, board involvement and long-term ownership positions.

Bryan also advises business owners exploring acquisitions, succession strategies and management buy-in or buy-out opportunities, helping them assess opportunities commercially before formal valuation or due diligence through structured pre-acquisition review processes.