Tackling Document Preparation for Your Financial Advisor Succession Plan

Creating a financial advisor succession plan is more than just making a bulleted check list of things you need to get done before you walk out the door for the last time. There are a number of things that will need to happen in order to legally transfer your clients, their portfolios, and your business to a new person. All of the document preparation that goes into this process is one of the biggest hurdles you’ll need to overcome in order to walk out care-free on your last day on the job. You’ll want to make sure it’s done right, too, or else you may find yourself in a legal battle during the early days of your retirement.That’

What Documents You Need to Think About

• Asset Purchase Agreement
• Confidentiality Agreements
• Financing Agreements
• Non-Compete Agreement
• Employment Agreement
• Letter of Intent (FROR)

That’s just the beginning of the list. Depending on other factors, you may end up with a lot more paperwork to do than those that we’ve listed above. The real issue comes in knowing what documents you actually need and which ones don’t apply to your particular situation. Every financial advisor succession plan is different and the kind of documents that you need will depend heavily on two major factors:

• How you are selling your business.
  • If you are selling parts of your book to multiple advisors, you’ll need to create paperwork for each one of those sales. In addition, you may not need to worry about paperwork that relates to the sale of your business as a whole.
• Who is buying your business.
  • Which documents you need will depend on whether you are selling your business to an outside person or to an internal candidate.

Best Practices for Document Preparation

It’s time to bring in the pros.

This is an area where it’s a good idea to get some legal help. At the very least, you’ll want to discuss the documents with your lawyer and make sure that you have all of your bases covered before you officially retire. If you don’t, you may end up in a dispute at the very time you are trying to enjoy the first few months of your retirement. At the minimum, have a lawyer look over the documents once you’ve prepared them to ensure you’ve covered all of your bases.

Look for companies experienced with succession planning.

Another option is to work with a company that specializes in document preparation for retiring financial advisors. They can help guide you through the process and ensure that every detail is taken care of for you. This removes a major obstacle from your list of “to do’s” before your last day at work. It can provide you peace of mind, too, knowing that all the legalities of transferring your business have been professionally managed for you.

Looking for a company who can help you get your documents all in a row? Talk to the advisorRETIRE™ team. We offer document preparation for retiring financial advisors. We can help you, too. Give us a call or contact us through our website today.