Keep These 5 Things in Mind With Your Succession Planning

Succession planning is not something that is taken lightly. Not only is this the time for you to pass on the legacy that you’ve created, but it’s a time where you are getting ready to move into the next phase of your life where stress should not be a primary factor. Working through the succession planning process with the team at advisorRETIRE™ is one of the main ways that you can ensure this time of your life is smooth and enjoyable.

If you’re getting started with the planning portion of your process, there are a few different things that you can keep in mind as you work through it. Each of these things will provide you a little bit of insight so that you can ensure that you are as ready as can be once you start working through the process.

Set Realistic Goals

The thing about retirement is that it differs for each and every individual. This change in lifestyle will be dependent on what age you’d like to retire, what your finances and savings look like, what type of lifestyle you have envisioned after retirement and more. When it comes to your succession plan, you’re going to want to make sure that you have a realistic idea of what your retirement will look like, and are planning with those things in mind. When you consider what it is that you want, we need you to be realistic with us so that we can set and maintain realistic expectations throughout the process.

This type of realization can prepare you to answer questions such as how you’d like to receive your payout, which accounts will need particular types of assistance, and any other things that need special attention in the procession plan. While factors of your business are something that needs to be thought about, one of the things that people often forget about is what they’re going to do when they move forward from their business and have to live a life that isn’t based on their job. This next step deserves some time to really think about what it is that you need when moving forward, and what types of things you’ll be spending your time doing after you’ve passed on your book. Most business owners and financial advisors will have a difficult time moving forward because their business is all they know, which can make officially implementing a succession plan extremely nerve-wracking and overwhelming. Take enough time to plan your succession and figure out what your next step is so that this process is a beneficial one.

Recognize Your Strengths

As a firm that has grown and developed, it’s not uncommon to have met some incredible talent along the way. Let’s face it, as you build your business to align with your morals and expectations, you have to filter through quite a bit of people to ensure that you aren’t settling. Once you find someone that is a good fit and provides the quality of work that you’d like, make sure that you are taking care of them and doing what you can to pass on any accounts or work to them. This is something that we will ask you about as we start to create a succession plan, so if you have specific people in mind, make sure that you’re preparing us for them.

This is one of the best ways to also ensure that your clients are taken care of. Through this technique of putting clients first, you can feel confident that quality won’t slip at any point in the process. You can also feel confident that your customers won’t think any less of you or the time you’ve put in for them, just because you’re retiring. When you leave them in the hands of someone that cares just as much, you can relax when moving forward.

That being said, it’s also really important that you take any opportunity you see fit to train the individuals that are a part of your business so that they can continue to provide the high-quality services that you and your customers are accustomed to.

These two subjects that we’ve covered are only the beginning of our series that will continue to cover the different types of topics that you should keep in mind when you are beginning to plan your succession. Make sure to check back in the next couple of days for further information on how you can start your succession planning.

advisorRETIRE™ has years of experience with succession plans, so at the end of the day, whether you use our blogs to get you started with thinking about your plan, or you fully trust us with the business that you’ve built, we can’t wait to be an active part of your future.