Succession planning

Each firm’s succession plan and transition will be unique, but whether it’s an internal transition, merging and staying involved or selling and moving on, not enough advisors are planning for it.

Firms are partnering with their advisors to help mid-market business owner clients retire.

More than eight in 10 American millionaires believe that each generation should be responsible for creating its own wealth, up from 65% who said the same thing in 2007 when the survey was last conducted.

For RIAs who want to ensure clients that their firm will endure to serve their children and grandchildren, a robust internal succession plan is critical. One way to do that is to eliminate outside ownership conflicts, argues the founder and CEO of one leading RIA firm.

In the most recent move by a large firm to help planners solve pressing succession issues, Cetera Advisor Networks is now offering its regional directors, s well as other small- to mid-sized broker dealers, the opportunity to sell their businesses to Cetera.

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When Atlanta-based Ronald Blue & Co., one of the country's largest RIAs, was building its internal succession plan, the company’s CEO hit upon a necessary precondition. “You have to have a mission that’s compelling enough to make sure that your clients are taken care of after you are gone,” says Russ Crosson, the company’s president and CEO. “The firm is bigger than any one individual.”

Advisors have been racing to finish what some say is an unprecedented transfer of wealth.

Financial advisors often handle getting their clients’ affairs in order in case they die, but when it comes to succession planning for their own practices, that is often another matter entirely.

The program, announced Wednesday, will provide financing for junior partners seeking equity in a firm. It's currently in a pilot phase for registered investment advisory firms with more than $400 million in assets under management and at least three existing senior principals.

Beacon Pointe Wealth Advisors announced the addition of its third advisor partner, $130 million AUM RIA Wealth Management Network of Newport Beach, Calif. today. This marks the third deal in the last year and a half for national advisory partnership firm BPWA.

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Raymond James has expanded its practice acquisitions and succession planning department this year as it looks to open up more transition options for advisor force.

The advisory industry has been fretting about the impending tsunami of retiring advisors in the coming years for some time. As a result, firms are assembling succession programs as a way to ease the transition of client assets from older advisors to the much younger set.

A surprisingly simple business model could deliver financial advice to a much broader segment of the American population.

"As breakaway brokers continue to seek the benefits of the independent RIA model and a large number of RIAs near retirement, we're seeing unprecedented opportunities to create mutually beneficial relationships between advisors," said Ben Welch, Ameritrade's director of advisor business development. "RIAConnect meets the increasing demand for a more effective way to connect firms and helps support advisor growth potential."

In an effort to give smaller RIAs access to a broader array of services, Ron Carson has launched Carson Institutional Advisory. The new platform includes a succession planning strategy as an added attraction.

As the advisory universe ages, it's inevitable that more advisors will retire, become disabled, or die. Just as inevitable, there will be more sales of interests in advisory practices or entire practices. But just how valuable will those practices be, with most clients drawing down rather than building up the assets that advisors manage?

A strong leadership plan will not only help you identify the right successors, it is also the centerpiece of any successful transition.

It's not always easy to work with highly successful business owners, but the effort can be rewarding.