Succession is often left until a sale is already being contemplated, at which point the options are narrower and the valuation reflects that.
This matters because the things that make a firm transferable — documented processes, client relationships that do not depend on one person, clean data — take years to build and cannot be assembled quickly.
Questions for discussion:
- At what stage did succession first become a serious consideration in your firm?
- Which preparations have proved most valuable, and which were wasted effort?
- What would you tell a firm ten years away from a transition?
Please avoid commercially sensitive detail, and treat any valuation comments as general observation rather than guidance.
This thread is an editorial prompt from Adviser Forum. Please answer from your own experience rather than on behalf of the profession, avoid presenting any response as regulatory or legal guidance, and strip out any detail that could identify a client, a case or an individual member of staff.