Preparing for What Comes Next: The Team Behind Carter Electric's Successful Transaction

Long before Carter Electric entered a transaction process, owner Doug Carter was already thinking about what came next.

The conversation began with Davis Talmage, Doug's longtime advisor, whose relationship with Doug dated back to 2019. In the summer of 2023, Davis asked Doug a straightforward question: What did he ultimately want for himself and the business?

Doug knew he wanted to begin moving toward a different chapter in the years ahead. That started a broader planning process designed to connect his personal goals with the future of Carter Electric. But for Doug, the goal wasn't simply to maximize the financial outcome. He had spent decades building Carter Electric and wanted the next chapter to protect that legacy while creating continued opportunities for the employees who had helped build the company alongside him.

Davis began working with Doug to align his financial and estate planning with those goals, including assessing his personal balance sheet, evaluating the potential value of the business, and developing a plan for what life after a future liquidity event could look like.

‍Preparing the Business for Its Next Chapter

As part of that planning, the team also took a closer look at Carter Electric itself. The assessment identified opportunities to strengthen the business and make its value more durable, including reducing dependency on Doug, strengthening financial reporting and creating greater consistency in operating processes.

‍That's when Davis, at Encompass Wealth Management, brought RVR Consulting Group in.

RVR worked directly with Carter Electric to strengthen the business from the inside, including organizational structure and role clarity, financial reporting and accounting practices, performance metrics, and greater visibility into backlog and pipeline.

The objective wasn't simply to prepare Carter Electric for a sale. It was to build a stronger business, maximize its value and give Doug more options for the future.

"Our work with Doug started with understanding where he wanted to go and then helping strengthen the business to support those goals. By doing that work well before a transaction was on the table, Doug was in a much stronger position to evaluate his options when the opportunity ultimately came."
- Joe Raymond, President, RVR Consulting Group

‍When Opportunity Arrived

In 2025, Carter Electric received interest from a prospective buyer. By then, years of planning and business preparation had already taken place. RVR transitioned into a sell-side M&A advisory role, helping Doug evaluate the initial opportunity while taking Carter Electric to the broader market.

At the same time, Davis continued helping Doug evaluate the transaction through the lens of his broader financial and estate plan, including modeling potential proceeds and preparing for life after the liquidity event.

“The transaction was really the culmination of planning that had started years earlier. By connecting Doug's personal and financial goals with the future of the business, we had a much clearer understanding of what the right outcome needed to look like — financially, but also for Carter Electric's employees and the legacy Doug had built.”
- Davis Talmage, CEPA, Encompass Wealth Management

Navigating the Transaction

As the transaction moved forward, Fernandez Legal was added to the team of advisors as legal counsel to Doug Carter and Carter Electric.  

Led by Kevin Rowan in collaboration with the broader Fernandez Legal team, the firm advised on the legal aspects of the transaction, including pre-closing restructuring, due diligence, transaction structuring and definitive agreements, required consents, and closing mechanics.

Together, the advisors brought different but complementary expertise to the table: financial and estate planning from Encompass Wealth Management, business preparation and sell-side M&A advisory from RVR Consulting Group, and transaction counsel from Fernandez Legal.

"Transactions like this require thoughtful coordination across a number of important decisions. Having an experienced advisory team aligned around Doug's goals helped us navigate the legal process and move the transaction successfully through closing."
- Kevin D. Rowan, Esq., Fernandez Legal

‍A New Chapter for Carter Electric

The transaction closed on July 31, 2026, with Carter Electric becoming part of Nearing Visabeira through its U.S. subsidiary, Sargent Electric.

For Doug, the transaction represented an important milestone in a process that began years earlier with a much bigger question about what he ultimately wanted for himself and the business. And for Carter Electric, it marked the beginning of its next chapter.

"This process started well before we ever had an offer in front of us. Taking the time to understand my options, prepare the business and have the right advisors around me made a tremendous difference when the opportunity came."
- Doug Carter, Carter Electric

Carter Electric's story is a reminder that successful business transitions rarely begin when an offer arrives. They begin with understanding what the owner wants, preparing the business to support those goals, and surrounding the owner with the right expertise well before a transaction is on the table.

Because when opportunity comes, preparation creates options.

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