Selling Your Restoration Company? Check Your TPA Registrations First

0:00 Intro
If you’re thinking about selling your restoration company, one of the first things you need to check is whether your TPA registrations are in your personal name. According to Aquadex, forty-three percent of restoration deals in Q1 2026 had registrations held in the owner’s personal name. That is not a small number, and it’s the kind of thing that can slow a deal, kill a deal, or cost you serious money at closing. This video walks you through what TPA registrations are, why the name on them matters so much, how to find out where yours stand, and what to do before you go to market.

0:37 What Is a TPA and Why Does It Matter in a Sale
TPA stands for third-party administrator. In the restoration world, TPAs are the managed programs that connect you with insurance work. Programs like Alacrity, Contractor Connection, Encircle, and others, they route claims to approved contractors. If you’re on those lists, you get the calls. If you’re not, you don’t. For many restoration companies, TPA work represents a significant share of total revenue. That revenue is what a buyer is paying for. So when a buyer or their attorney starts doing due diligence, the first question they ask is, "Can we actually keep this revenue after the sale?"

1:16 The Registration Name Problem
Here’s where most owners run into trouble. When you signed up for a TPA program years ago, you probably filled out the application yourself. You put your name on it. Maybe the company was brand new. Maybe the program required a personal contact. Maybe nobody told you it would matter later. Whatever the reason, the registration now says your name, not the company’s name. That creates a problem at sale. Aquadex reported that forty-three percent of Q1 2026 restoration deals had this exact issue. Nearly one in two deals. The registration isn’t automatically transferable. The TPA may not recognize the new owner. The buyer may not be approved to operate under that program. And if the revenue tied to those registrations can’t be guaranteed to transfer, buyers discount their offer, add contingencies, or walk away. A buyer is not just buying your trucks and your equipment,

2:14 Why Buyers and Their Attorneys Flag This
they’re buying your revenue streams. When their attorney reviews the deal, they’re going to look at every contract, every vendor agreement, and every program registration and ask one question: Does this survive the ownership change? If a TPA registration is in your personal name, the honest answer is maybe not. Some TPAs require a full reapplication under the new owner. Some TPAs have approval queues that run months long. Some will grant a temporary operating agreement. Some won’t respond at all until the old owner formally exits. Every one of those scenarios introduces risk, and risk in a deal means lower price or harder terms. Aquadex tracked restoration M&A deals in Q1 2026. In forty-three percent of those deals, TPA registrations were held in the owner’s personal name. That means in nearly half of all deals, this was an issue that had to be worked through. Think about that. This isn’t some edge case. This is standard operating procedure for a lot of restoration owners who built their companies organically one TPA program at a time. They got approved, they started getting work, and they never went back to check whose name was actually on the account. If you’re planning to sell in the next one to three years, now is the time to check, not the week before closing.

3:38 How to Find Out Where Your Registrations Stand
Pull up every TPA you’re currently enrolled in. For each one, log in to the contractor portal or pull the original enrollment documents. Look for the primary account holder name. Look for the registered contact. Look for the entity name on the agreement. You want to see your company’s legal name, not your personal name. If you see your personal name, flag it. Make a list. Every TPA, every name, every program status.

4:08 Registrations in the Company’s Name Versus Your Name
That list becomes the foundation for the next step. Here’s the core distinction. If the registration says ABC Restoration LLC, a buyer’s attorney can review that as a company asset. It may still require TPA approval to transfer, but it is clearly attached to the entity being sold. If the registration says John Smith, the question becomes, is John Smith selling this or is ABC Restoration LLC? John Smith can’t be transferred. The company can be sold. The LLC membership can change hands. But John Smith’s approval in a TPA network does not automatically follow the company. That’s the legal gap buyers are worried about. Picture a restoration company doing solid volume, significant TPA revenue.

4:55 A Worked Example of How This Plays Out
Owner has been in the network for eight years. Buyer comes in. Due diligence starts. Their team pulls the TPA documentation. Three of the five programs the company is enrolled in are registered under the owner’s personal name. Those three programs account for a meaningful share of annual revenue. Buyer’s attorney flags it. Now you’re negotiating. Do you get re-registered before closing? Does the buyer accept a contingency tied to TPA reapproval? Does the seller hold proceeds in escrow pending approval? Every one of those paths costs time and money, and some buyers just move on to a cleaner deal. The seller lost leverage because of a paperwork issue that could have been fixed before going to market.

5:47 Splitbreak: What the Fix Actually Looks Like
The good news is this is fixable. It’s not a legal catastrophe. It’s an administrative issue, but you have to get ahead of it. The fix is working with each TPA to update the account holder from your personal name to the company entity. Some programs make this straightforward. You submit a form, provide updated documentation, and they update the record. Others require a full re-verification. Either way, you want this resolved before a buyer ever sees your P&L. Re-registration is not always fast.

6:21 Timing: Why You Want to Fix This Early
Some TPA programs have processing times that can run weeks or months. If you’re planning to list your company in the next twelve to eighteen months, start this process now. A deal timeline moves fast once a buyer is engaged. You do not want to be chasing TPA paperwork while a buyer is waiting on due diligence. That’s how deals stall. That’s how buyers get nervous and start renegotiating. Fix it now. Document it. Um, put it in your data room. That shows a buyer you run a tight operation. While you’re checking TP registrations, run the same review on these: your general

6:55 Other Business Registrations to Review at the Same Time
contractor license, if it’s held personally rather than by the entity, any state restoration contractor certifications registered under your name, ICRC certifications for technicians. Make sure they’re individual certs, not tied to you as the sole qualifier. Vendor accounts tied to your personal credit rather than the company. Any carrier direct preferred vendor agreements that list you personally as the approved contact. All of these carry the same risk. If the approval is attached to you, not the company, it needs to be reviewed before sale. Buyers who pay top dollar for restoration companies are looking for one thing:

7:37 What Buyers Are Looking For in a Clean Deal
predictable, transferable revenue. That means the customer relationships are with the company, not with you personally. The TPA approvals are with the company, not with you personally. The licenses and certifications are with the company, not with you personally. The cleaner the separation between you as an individual and the company as an operating entity, the more transferable the business is and the higher the valuation. This is the work you do before you go to market, not after.

8:09 Splitbreak: What a Buyer’s Due Diligence Checklist Looks Like
When a serious buyer engages, their team is going to request a data room. Inside that data room, they expect to find TPA registration documents showing the company entity, active program status confirmation, copies of re-registration approvals if you updated any accounts recently, certification documentation for key programs, vendor agreements showing the company name. If you can hand them a clean file with all of that in order, you’ve just removed one of the biggest friction points in a restoration deal. That’s a better negotiating position. Here is something most sellers don’t think about.

8:44 How This Connects to Your Marketing Before the Sale
Your online presence matters to a buyer too. If your company ranks well locally for restoration searches, that traffic and those leads are part of the value. A buyer is evaluating whether that lead flow continues after you leave. That means your SEO, your Google profile, your directory listings, your local rankings, all of that needs to be attached to the company and not dependent on your personal reputation. The same logic applies. If the rankings only exist because of your personal name and history, they’re at risk in a transfer. Here’s the short version. First, audit every TPA you’re enrolled in. Check the name on every account. Second, flag anything registered personally. Build a list. Third, contact each TPA and start the re-registration process. Get it in writing. Fourth, review your contractor licenses, certifications, and vendor agreements. Apply the same test. Fifth, build a clean data room. Put all the documentation in one place, organized, labeled, ready. Sixth, talk to an M&A attorney or a business broker who works specifically in restoration. They’ve seen this problem. They can help you sequence it correctly. If you’re running a restoration company and thinking about an exit, get a free AI visibility check at PushLeads.com/check. It’s a fast way to see how your company’s online presence looks to a buyer and whether your digital assets are set up to transfer cleanly. You can also call us at eight two eight three four eight seven six eight six. The registration problem is fixable, but you have to know you have it first. Go to PushLeads.com/check and let’s take a look.