Succession options for financial advisers

Internal succession

The tidiest outcome when it works: someone in the firm buys you out over time. It needs a successor who wants it, can fund it, and is good enough that clients stay. Most small firms discover too late that they have one or two of those three, not all of them.

A trade sale to another advice firm

Usually the best fit for clients, because the buyer does the same job you do. The trade-off is that most firms your size cannot write a cheque without borrowing, so the consideration is more often deferred.

A consolidator

Faster and better funded. What you give up is control over what happens to the client afterwards: the proposition, the platform and the adviser may all change, and you will not be consulted.

A staged handover

You keep advising while somebody else takes the operational load, then exit later on terms agreed up front. It suits advisers who like the job and dislike the firm. That is what Securo is.

Carrying on

A real option, and sometimes the right one. The question to ask is what happens to your clients if you are ill for six months. If the answer is nothing good, the decision has already been made for you.