Succession Planning For Financial Advisors

This book is going to challenge you and everything you think you know about succession planning. For independent advisors, succession planning is quickly becoming the cornerstone to a strategic growth strategy designed to perpetuate their business and their income streams beyond their own lifetime, while providing a multi-generational service platform that attracts and rewards younger advisors. This makes succession planning one of the most, if not the most, important practice management tools in this industry today. As an independent financial advisor, now is the time to address the question of what will happen to your practice and your clients after you “exit the building.” In most cases, the answers are right in front of you. Thankfully, Succession Planning for Financial Advisors: Building an Enduring Business has arrived to transform today’s practices into businesses designed to endure and prosper and serve generations of clients. Learn how to create a “Lifestyle Succession Plan” that can provide a lifetime of income and benefits to the founder even as he/she gradually retires on the job Unlock the power of equity management – the best planning and building tool an independent advisor owns Learn how to attract and retain the best of the next generation to help you build a great business and to support your succession plans and care for your clients and their families Determine precisely when to start a formal succession plan and related continuity plan so that your business can work for you when you need it most Understand why succession planning and selling your business are completely different strategies, but how they can complement each other when used correctly 95% of independent financial service professionals are one owner practices. To the positive, these practices are among the most valuable professional service models in America. But almost all advisors are assembling their practices using the wrong tools – tools borrowed from historically successful, but vastly different models including wirehouses, broker-dealers, and even OSJ’s and branch managers. Revenue sharing, commission splitting and other eat-what-you-kill compensation methods dominate the independent sector and virtually ensure that today’s independent practices, if left unchanged, will not survive the end of their founder’s career. It is time to change course and this book provides the map and the details to help you do just that. For independent practice owners and staff members, advisors who want to transition to independence, as well as accountants, attorneys, coaches and others involved in the financial services space, there are invaluable lessons to be learned from Succession Planning for Financial Advisors. Written by the leading succession planning expert in the financial services industry, former securities regulator, M&A specialist, and founder of the nationally recognized consulting and equity management firm, FP Transitions, David Grau Sr., JD, has created an unmatched resource that will have an enduring and resounding impact on an entire industry.

The Authoritative M&A Guide for Financial Advisors Buying, Selling, & Valuing Financial Practices shows you how to complete a sale or acquisition of a financial advisory practice and have both the buyer and seller walk away with the best possible terms. From the first pages of this unique book, buyers and sellers and merger partners will find detailed information that separately addresses each of their needs, issues and concerns. From bestselling author and industry influencer David Grau Sr. JD, this masterful guide takes you from the important basics of valuation to the finer points of deal structuring, due diligence, and legal matters, with a depth of coverage and strategic guidance that puts you in another league when you enter the M&A space. Complete with valuable tools, worksheets, and checklists on a companion website, no other resource enables you to: Master the concepts of value and valuation and take this issue “off the table” early in the negotiation process Utilize advanced deal structuring techniques including seller and bank financing strategies Understand how to acquire a book, practice or business based on how it was built, and what it is capable of delivering in the years to come Navigate the complexities of this highly-regulated profession to achieve consistently great results whether buying, selling, or merging Buying, Selling, & Valuing Financial Practices will ensure that you manage your M&A transaction properly and professionally, aided with the most powerful set of tools available anywhere in the industry, all designed to create a transaction where everyone wins—buyer, seller, and clients.

An insightful look at leadership transition from the successor's perspective Success and Succession examines the leadership transition process from the successor's point of view, and outlines the considerations and strategies that lead to a better future for the business. With a focus on practical planning and execution, this insightful guide provides insight into the strategies that smooth the transition and help the new leadership make better business decisions. You'll learn when and how to start planning, who you need on your team, and the obstacles you should anticipate along the way. You'll learn to navigate the uncertainty the process entails, and how to identify opportunities for reciprocal understanding and adopt workable approaches for successful resolution of a multitude of transition issues. Interviews with those at various stages of transition highlight the real-world application of these ideas, and give you an inside look at what worked, what didn't, and what they wish they had thought of. The transition of leadership in an independent, non-public professional service business can be emotional and difficult for everyone. This book gives you a framework for smoothing the process and driving the best possible future of the business. Consider the complexities of succession and transition Balance conflicting dynamics of outgoing and incoming leadership Plan for operational, financial, and emotional obstacles Develop and execute a winning strategy for long term success The transition from founder to successor is far from an academic exercise, and is not linear. Answers are hard to find, and the ebb and flow of the process requires patience, creativity, and willingness to try again. Success and Succession provides a unique strategy for success, from the perspective of incoming leadership.

Financial planning is a young industry. The International Association of Financial Planning—one of the predecessors to the Financial Planning Association—was formed less than forty years ago. But as the profession's first tier of advisers reaches maturity, the decisions that may be part of transition planning for their firms loom large. A sale? A partner buyout? A merger? No matter what the choice, its viability hinges on one critical issue—the value of the firm. Unfortunately, many advisers--whether veteran or novice—simply don't know the worth of their practice or how to influence it. That's why How to Value, Buy, or Sell a Financial-Advisory Practice is such an important book. It takes advisers carefully through the logic and the legwork of coming to a true assessment of one of their most important personal assets—their business. Renowned for their years of experience helping advisers tackle the daunting challenges related to the valuation, sale, and purchase of advisory firms, Mark C. Tibergien and Owen Dahl offer guidance that's essential and solutions that work.

We have all heard the warnings - the average age of advisors is mid-to-late fifties; half of the advisor population will reach retirement age within the next ten years; only one in ten advisors have a written succession plan; there are an insufficient number of new advisors to replace those who will die, become disabled, or retire.Yet it is only in the past ten years that we have really even begun to acknowledge these issues. Up until then, financial advisory practices either faded away with their founders or had their clients scattered among other advisors who may or may not have wanted to accept them. That was not so great for an industry that staked its value proposition on helping people plan for and manage their future well-being. Today, large, well-run, high-profile practices trade hands among like-minded advisors for millions of dollars. I am not worried about them. My concern is with the hundreds of thousands of advisors who have the majority of their personal wealth tied up in their small-to-medium sized practices. Moreover, they are counting on those businesses to fund their own retirement lifestyle. Many will be tragically disappointed because they waited too long, planned too little, and assumed too much. But it doesn't have to be that way. The process of transitioning a financial advisory practice from one advisor to another is relatively straightforward and follows the same path advisors use to counsel clients - create a vision for the future, conduct a reality check on the situation today, and draw a map to take you from where you are to where you want to go.I have been coaching financial advisors for more than 30 years, and they have taught me a lot. In addition to all the practice management insights, one of the most valuable lessons I have learned is that, given sound reasoning and a logical methodology, serious financial advisors will make a focused effort to change their habits and their businesses for the better. So that is what this book attempts to do - provide the rationale and the routine to motivate you to prepare for the eventual transition of your business to the most qualified successor. I am not trying to encourage you to retire - just to get ready for the day when it makes sense to you to exit your practice. The result will be continued service to clients who trust you, greater value to you for your life's work, and greater certainty about the industry's future.Succession planning is not an event - it is a journey. To help us along the way, I have re-introduced Henry, the central character from my book Blunder, Wonder, Thunder - Powering Your Practice to New Heights. We first worked with Henry several years ago when his practice had reached a plateau. Having broken through that ceiling and built his business to an enviable position, we will now follow Henry through various coaching conversations with me as he writes and directs the final act in the story of his life's work. Henry is not a real-life advisor; he is an amalgam of many with whom I have worked. However, all the conversations played out in this book have actually happened in coaching sessions with hundreds of advisors.The truth of the matter is that you will leave your business someday. The question is, will you be in control of your exit, or will you allow fate and circumstance to dictate what happens to the business you have spent so much of your life building?Come join Henry and me. I think you will enjoy the journey!

As the first wave of Canadian baby boomers retire over the next few years, succession planning will be vital for the long-term survival of many businesses. Canada is about to see a huge transfer of wealth from this generation to the next, yet many businesses struggle to ensure a smooth transition of business management and ownership. For family-owned companies, the ramifications may be even more sweeping. The personal issues they face, compounding other day-to-day business concerns, range from planning for income taxes to maintaining interpersonal relationships with family members. A good succession plan will manage a range of issues, such as people and talent, family dynamics, corporate structure, estate planning, insurance and share transfer, to name just a few. Who Will Take Over the Business? is for any business owner who wants to retire, sell, or transfer ownership of their business. It is designed to guide business owners through a comprehensive and strategic approach to the business succession process to ensure that the transition is carried out as smoothly as possible. Who Will Take Over the Business? is a must-have resource for every Canadian business owner.