The best advice that Mark Meservey can offer financial advisors going through a consolidation is this: Sit tight.

And Meservey should know. This senior vice president of investment management at Prosperity Bank in Houston, works for an institution that's in the middle of an acquisition. The $9.7 billion Prosperity announced in September that it plans to acquire the $72.5 million Bank of Texas in Austin through a stock swap.

Meservey has been on the other side of the equation too. He was at the $1 billion La Grange State Bank in the central Texas town of La Grange, which had steadily expanded through acquisitions over several years when Prosperity bought it. In each scenario—working for both the seller and the buyer—Meservey has thrived. "We had some reps who didn't want to stick around," says Meservey, talking about the Prosperity-La Grange deal in 2007. "They just didn't know what was going to happen and wanted to be coddled a little—and they assumed the worst. Looking back, leaving wasn't the best for them. If they'd kept their heads down and stayed the course, they would have been better off." Adds Meservey, who supervises 10 financial advisors: "For the ones who were patient, it was a non-issue. It turned out to be a bigger, stronger program than before."

Banks making acquisitions usually aren't doing so to dismantle them, says Brett Scheiner, a research analyst and vice president at the investment bank FBR & Co. In fact, responsible sellers seek out buyers who will retain their FAs and other employees or those affiliated with the bank once the sale is completed. "The bottom line is that brokerage programs are not an area where you cut a lot, because you want to hold on to the assets," says Scheiner. "A rep is a direct link between the bank and the customer." Moreover, once M&A deals take place, many acquiring banks tend to hire more FAs.

What adds to a financial advisor's job security, naturally, are his or her numbers. "If one bank buys another, and you're doing $500,000 and their guy is doing $250,000, who do you think they're going to keep?" asks Rusty Cloutier, president and CEO of Midsouth Bank in Lafayette, La., which has been acquiring other banks this summer.

And when a financial advisor has those good numbers, it's incumbent on the rep to make sure the new owners and bosses know what business he or she has brought to the bank.

In spite of all of those advantages on the side of FAs, it doesn't keep them from worrying.

"Traditionally, reps are type-A personalities who think the world revolves around them," notes Meservey. "I tell them they are important to a bank, but they are not its No. 1 priority."

M&A FRENZY?
For many financial advisors, negotiating the ups and downs of consolidation isn't something to worry about just now, because M&As aren't yet in full swing.

Indeed, this year was expected to be a busy time for bank M&A deals, especially for smaller institutions. In fact, industry observers got swept up in the euphoria of such flush deals late last year as Hancock Holdings buying Whitney National Bank for $1.5 billion and BMO Financial Group taking over M&I Bank for $4.1 billion that they predicted M&As would be going gangbusters in 2011.

Now they estimate that M&As will gain steam in the next year or two. Nonetheless, buyers and sellers are eager to get started when the time is right and engaging in legwork and due diligence.

For instance, Marti Rodamaker, president of the $1 billion First Citizens National Bank in Waterloo, Iowa, says she would buy another community bank "in a heartbeat," if she found one that's financially sound and whose values dovetail with the bank she heads. First Citizens National Bank is the result of a merger of four banks in 1994, which turned out to be highly lucrative for the institution. As a result of those acquisitions, First Citizens reports about two-thirds more in assets today, up from $350 million, and 40 percent more full-time employees, including an increase in the number of bank investment brokers and trust advisors from one to four of each.

She echoes the thoughts of other community bankers in the acquisitive mode. Because successful bankers are eager to buy, they regularly monitor the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s list of distressed banks, field calls from bankers interested in selling and maintain relationships with investment bankers who monitor the community banking space.