Most advisors spend 30 years building a practice and 30 days thinking about what happens to it. We help you build a succession plan that protects your clients, your team, and the value you've created.
Start a Confidential Succession ConversationOver the next decade, more than 100,000 financial advisors are expected to retire. According to Cerulli Associates, more than a quarter of those advisors don't have a succession plan.
What happens to the value of their practice is predictable - practices without succession plans sell at discounts, if they sell at all. What happens to their clients is uncertain.
A good succession plan does three things: it protects your clients from disruption, it ensures your team has a future, and it gives you options - whether that means a full exit, a phased transition, or something in between.
Identifying and developing a junior advisor or team member who can take over client relationships over time. Requires runway - typically 3 to 7 years - but often produces the best client continuity outcomes. CSG can help identify candidates and structure the economics.
Bringing in a partner or acquirer who takes on operational responsibility while you remain involved in client relationships during a defined transition period. Common with W-2 conversions and equity partnership structures.
A complete sale to an acquiring firm or individual buyer. Works well when the timeline is shorter, the succession plan has been deferred, or the advisor wants a clean exit. Premium multiples are available for well-positioned practices.
Many of the BD and RIA platforms CSG works with have internal succession programs - practice acquisition financing, matching programs, and continuity planning. If you're already on a good platform, your best succession option may already exist there.
Succession readiness isn't just about finding a buyer. It's about building a practice that can transfer without breaking.
Succession planning and continuity planning are related but different.
A succession plan is for the transition you choose. A continuity plan is for the transition you don't. If something happened to you tomorrow, what would happen to your clients? Most advisors don't have a written answer to that question.
If you don't have a continuity plan in place, this is worth a conversation.
Succession planning is the process of deciding how client relationships, team responsibilities, ownership, economics, and practice continuity will transfer when an advisor retires, slows down, sells, or faces an unexpected transition.
Start years before an intended exit. Early planning creates more choices, stronger client continuity, better successor development, and more room to structure economics thoughtfully.
Common options include internal succession, phased external transition, full acquisition, equity partnership, platform-facilitated succession, or a continuity plan for unexpected events.
Succession planning addresses a transition the advisor chooses. Continuity planning addresses an unexpected transition and documents what happens to clients, staff, and operations if the advisor cannot serve clients tomorrow.
Whether you're just starting to think about succession or already in the process, we're happy to have a confidential conversation about where you stand and what your options look like.
Start a Confidential Succession Conversation