Buying another financial adviser’s practice can significantly grow a firm, adding resources, assets and revenue. But those deals don’t always work out. Firm cultures may not mesh or the paperwork may overwhelm clients, forcing some to leave and take assets with them. In many cases, closer scrutiny of a firm’s clients and corporate culture are just some of the ways practice management and deal experts say disaster can be avoided, writes WSJ.com’s Wealth Adviser. “Some advisers approach an acquisition thinking they may be able to bring in additional assets from existing clients or build multigenerational relationships–and those opportunities may not exist,” says Dan Klein, executive vice president of Platinum Advisor Strategies. Advisers making a deal should probe the target firm’s clients to better understand why some accounts are small or ensure that large accounts have a high probability of transitioning. A targeted firm’s culture can also sink a deal. Mary Ann Buchanan, chief executive of RIA Match, says firms should consider hosting a joint educational event or find another way to work together before merging.

MANAGING THE MONEY:

Monitoring mutual funds for taxable distributions. Stock-market performance has been weak in the past three months, but many mutual funds still have securities that have appreciated over the past six years, which could result in realized capital gains, writes Morningstar. Those gains will be realized if such a fund has a triggering event, such as sizable asset outflows or a manager change that prompts that sale of appreciated assets. Fund companies begin to publish information on anticipated capital-gains distributions in November. Consider holding off from buying any fund that’s forecasting a large capital-gains distribution, Morningstar advises.

When to have an IRA pass to a trust.  Sometimes it makes sense to have an individual retirement account pass to a trust instead of specific individuals, says Financial Planning. “Naming a trust as a beneficiary of an IRA is an effective means to maintain control over how wealth is distributed and protect beneficiaries,” Timothy Keefe, a senior vice president with Raymond James Trust, told the publication. In instances where clients are in a second marriage with children from a prior marriage, when clients want to protect minor children or they want to control distributions to beneficiaries, a trust may be more appropriate. But there are two trust models that can be used, says Janney Montgomery Scott adviser Michael Repak: a conduit trust, which passes IRA distributions through to beneficiaries, or an accumulation trust, which retains the money.

THE BUSINESS: 

Politicians work to influence fiduciary rulemaking. Lawmakers are making a last-ditch effort to influence the Labor Department’s fiduciary proposal,  which would shift brokers’ responsibility on retirement accounts to put their clients’ interest ahead of their own, writes WSJ.com’s MoneyBeat blog. Nearly 100 Democrats in the House of Representatives submitted a letter to Labor Secretary Thomas Perez on Thursday, expressing concern that some of the rule’s provisions may cause “market disruptions” and discourage financial companies and advisers from serving investors with modest savings. Meanwhile, the House Financial Services Committee is expected to mark up legislation proposed by the plan’s opponents to block the rulemaking in a session scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday next week.

UBS hires Merrill brokers managing $1.3 billion. Three elite Merrill Lynch brokers resigned to join UBS Group AG’s U.S. wealth-management unit, reports WSJ.com’s Wealth Adviser. Advisers Melissa Corrado-Harrison, Greg Richardson and Ronald Kemp joined UBS in Denver recently from Merrill, where they were part of the firm’s ultra-wealthy client team known as the Private Banking and Investment Group. They had managed about $1.32 billion in assets at Merrill and generated $7.8 million in annual fees and commissions. Merrill confirmed the departures but declined to comment further.

THE PRACTICE:

Preparing for a client’s sudden disability. Advisers need to be prepared with resources and planning strategies in case a client’s medical conditions dramatically change his or her financial outlook, notes Financial Advisor IQ. Mark Scherzer, a New York-based attorney, says advisers should initially review their client’s employee benefits and make adjustments. “When people come in with potential disabilities, my priority is to know what benefits they are signed up for,” Mr. Scherzer says. That typically includes reviewing how clients pay for their disability-insurance premium to see if they are paying it with pretax dollars, which would make all the benefits taxable, or if they pay for the premium themselves. The latter could reduce the tax burden since all the benefits a client gets wouldn’t be taxable.

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Please send tips, suggestions or other comments to Michael Wursthorn at michael.wursthorn@wsj.com or Wealth editor Karen Damato at karen.damato@wsj.com.