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It's always been challenging for financial advisors to devote time and attention to succession planning. In the current pandemic environment, advisors are even more stretched, trying to stay connected to clients, keeping them informed, and still dealing with the normal activities of running a planning practice.
But succession planning is critical, especially today. Yes, the profession is graying, which has been the case for a while. But sometimes the unexpected happens, and it can be disastrous without a succession plan in place. Market risk is a given in our business, but we should all be thinking about personal health and planning for any eventuality.
Our profession is still in a phase where founders own the vast majority of advisory firms and a high percentage of those firms will not survive the founder's retirement. There has been more talk about succession planning than real action. It remains to be seen how many firms actually transfer to the next generation even with the current focus on the issue.
A successful succession plan achieves a triple win:
- For clients, who, as professionals, we have a responsibility to see cared for;
- For retiring partners;
- For the next generation of firm leaders.
Case History
While there are a variety of succession strategies you can pursue, the one we used in my advisory firm worked well for us. You might find our experience useful, no matter where you are in your practice life cycle.
We chose the path of internal succession because it provides the greatest opportunity to achieve the triple win. But internal succession plans take time and investment in developing people; ours started 15 years ago.
