A Healthy Timeline for Succession Planning for Financial Advisors

Financial advisors face a number of unique obstacles when it comes to planning their retirement. Handing over their clients’ portfolios to someone new is much easier said than done; they’ve built a relationship with their clients that need to be honored and their clients are relying on the financial advisor to help them realize their long-term plans. Because of the unique situation that financial advisors are in, it’s important that they start their succession planning earlier than many other independent business owners would need to do. So what’s the ideal timeline for a financial advisor?

When Succession Planning for Financial Advisors Should Begin

At the 10 Year Mark

This is the ideal amount of time for succession planning for financial advisors. When you have this much time to make and execute your plan, it can actually be fun! You’ll be able to make the best plans for both you, your business and your clients. You’ll be able to gradually take more and more time off and hand more responsibilities over to the person or team taking over your accounts, while still being able to give your input and have a say in your business. The transition will feel so natural that it will be a pleasure, not a pain.

 

At the 5 Year Mark

This is a more manageable amount of time, although still not ideal. Five years gives you time to get the clients in your book used to the idea of someone else handling their portfolios, although it can still feel fast to them. Think about how often you contact your clients on a regular basis; the number of times you’ll do that in a five year period can feel dismally few when it comes to transitioning them to a new financial advisor. It can be done, though you’ll need to be smart about every decision that you make.

At the 1-2 Year Mark

If you are only one or two years away from your target retirement date, you are going to have a lot of work to do in the next 12 to 24 months to make a successful transition. Don’t panic. There are ways to handle this situation. Working with an experienced succession planning expert might be the best way to handle your retirement in such a short amount of time, though, as they’ll be able to offer you guidance and the wisdom of their own experience to get through this pre-retirement period gracefully. Things are going to happen for you and your business very quickly.

 

We Can Help You Create a Successful Succession Plan

So where are you at in your retirement planning? If you are 10 years or less away from your target retirement age, then it’s time to start making a succession plan. advisorRETIRE™ can help. We’ve worked with financial advisors from all over the country who were at all different stages of retirement planning. We’ll make it easy for you and your clients to make this change, so you can retire with the peace of mind of knowing that the right people are caring for your clients’ portfolios.
Ready to get started? Talk to our team today.