PLANADVISER - July/August 2021 - 36

growing your practice / succession
Look Toward the Future
The pandemic has brought adviser succession planning to the fore
T
he COVID-19 pandemic has made it clear that business
owners need to prepare for the unexpected and have
a continuity plan for their firm. Retirement industry
insiders point to plan adviser firms especially, where CEOs
are apt to be older, putting them at greater risk of a COVIDrelated-or
other-illness. Adding to the urgency, succession
planning has long been a blind spot for most boards.
Financial advisers focused on serving retirement plans
and clients who own individual retirement accounts (IRAs)
are used to talking about the financial transition that people
eventually make from earning a steady income to living off
of accumulated assets and investments. For any number of
reasons, there is much less attention paid to an adviser's
own long-term financial future, and many of these professionals
nearing the traditional retirement age have yet to
seriously plan their next step. They realize their business is
valuable, but how to extract that value is another question,
and so is what happens to clients.
" The pandemic has certainly heightened the sense of
urgency in all private businesses on succession planning, "
says Alicia Goodrow, a partner at Culhane Meadows in
Houston, who focuses on succession planning. " Businesses,
including retirement- and wealth-management-planning
businesses, owned by healthy, engaged people in their 40s,
50s and 60s, are seeing the very real possibility of debilitating
illness or death as a high-risk factor for them and
their business. Clients are beginning to ask, quite bluntly,
what plans their senior advisers have made. "
Advisers starting a business together do not want to talk
about succession planning on day one, she continues, " but
there is the human factor. You need to know your partners'
life goals and their spouse's goals, and those conversations
should be ongoing. The conversation should be revisited
regularly. If there is an illness or an industry change, it's
easier to have started the planning early on. "
Dimensional Fund Advisors' 2020 Global Advisor Study
notes that the main succession-planning-related challenges
that firm owners report are deciding on their
successor (49%) and then on a time frame for the transition
to take place (28%). Some firms seek their successor
36 | planadviser.com July-August 2021 Art by Melinda Beck
http://www.planadviser.com

PLANADVISER - July/August 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of PLANADVISER - July/August 2021

Publisher’s Note
Data Points
Compliance News
Trends
Proposals That Please
2021 PLANADVISER Small-Plan Services Survey: Small Wonders
‘Like’ Me
Building Out Referral Networks
Look Toward The Future
Now A Fiduciary
Cybersecurity And ERISA
Q&A
PLANADVISER - July/August 2021 - Cover1
PLANADVISER - July/August 2021 - Cover2
PLANADVISER - July/August 2021 - 1
PLANADVISER - July/August 2021 - Publisher’s Note
PLANADVISER - July/August 2021 - 3
PLANADVISER - July/August 2021 - Data Points
PLANADVISER - July/August 2021 - 5
PLANADVISER - July/August 2021 - Compliance News
PLANADVISER - July/August 2021 - 7
PLANADVISER - July/August 2021 - 8
PLANADVISER - July/August 2021 - 9
PLANADVISER - July/August 2021 - Trends
PLANADVISER - July/August 2021 - 11
PLANADVISER - July/August 2021 - 12
PLANADVISER - July/August 2021 - 13
PLANADVISER - July/August 2021 - 14
PLANADVISER - July/August 2021 - 15
PLANADVISER - July/August 2021 - Proposals That Please
PLANADVISER - July/August 2021 - 17
PLANADVISER - July/August 2021 - 18
PLANADVISER - July/August 2021 - 19
PLANADVISER - July/August 2021 - 2021 PLANADVISER Small-Plan Services Survey: Small Wonders
PLANADVISER - July/August 2021 - 21
PLANADVISER - July/August 2021 - 22
PLANADVISER - July/August 2021 - 23
PLANADVISER - July/August 2021 - 24
PLANADVISER - July/August 2021 - 25
PLANADVISER - July/August 2021 - 26
PLANADVISER - July/August 2021 - 27
PLANADVISER - July/August 2021 - ‘Like’ Me
PLANADVISER - July/August 2021 - 29
PLANADVISER - July/August 2021 - 30
PLANADVISER - July/August 2021 - 31
PLANADVISER - July/August 2021 - 32
PLANADVISER - July/August 2021 - 33
PLANADVISER - July/August 2021 - Building Out Referral Networks
PLANADVISER - July/August 2021 - 35
PLANADVISER - July/August 2021 - Look Toward The Future
PLANADVISER - July/August 2021 - 37
PLANADVISER - July/August 2021 - Now A Fiduciary
PLANADVISER - July/August 2021 - Cybersecurity And ERISA
PLANADVISER - July/August 2021 - Q&A
PLANADVISER - July/August 2021 - Cover3
PLANADVISER - July/August 2021 - Cover4
https://www.planadviserdigital.com/planadviser/july_august_2021
https://www.planadviserdigital.com/planadviser/may_june_2021
https://www.planadviserdigital.com/planadviser/march_april_2021
https://www.planadviserdigital.com/planadviser/january_february_2021
https://www.planadviserdigital.com/planadviser/november_december_2020
https://www.planadviserdigital.com/planadviser/september_october_2020
https://www.planadviserdigital.com/planadviser/july_august_2020
https://www.planadviserdigital.com/planadviser/may_june_2020
https://www.planadviserdigital.com/planadviser/march_april_2020
https://www.planadviserdigital.com/planadviser/january_february_2020
https://www.planadviserdigital.com/planadviser/november_december_2019
https://www.planadviserdigital.com/planadviser/september_october_2019
https://www.planadviserdigital.com/planadviser/july_august_2019
https://www.planadviserdigital.com/planadviser/may_june_2019
https://www.planadviserdigital.com/planadviser/march_april_2019
https://www.planadviserdigital.com/planadviser/january_february_2019
https://www.planadviserdigital.com/planadviser/november_december_2018
https://www.planadviserdigital.com/planadviser/september_october_2018
https://www.planadviserdigital.com/planadviser/july_august_2018
https://www.planadviserdigital.com/planadviser/may_june_2018
https://www.planadviserdigital.com/planadviser/march_april_2018
https://www.planadviserdigital.com/planadviser/january_february_2018
https://www.planadviserdigital.com/planadviser/november_december_2017
https://www.planadviserdigital.com/planadviser/september_october_2017
https://www.planadviserdigital.com/planadviser/july_august_2017
https://www.nxtbookmedia.com