The Top 3 Reasons Advisors Avoid Succession Planning (and What’s Really Behind It)

Why do advisors who excel at guiding clients through retirement planning struggle to start their own succession planning?Tyson Ray and Kim Cochenour, along with Aaron Hasler and Andrea Schlapia, explore the three reasons why advisors don’t get around to it.You’ll hear about the #1 challenge for advisors, why and how “business exit” should be reframed, and why failing to treat succession planning like the process it is leads to value erosion.Tyson Ray and Kim Cochenour look at why advisors seem to struggle to get their own succession planning process started.Tyson and Ray address the topic by also featuring contributions by Aaron Hasler and Andrea Schlapia.Kim kicks things off by touching upon three reasons why advisors typically don’t get around to their succession planning.They are: 1) not really understanding the options; 2) succession planning feels way more personal than what you expected; 3) you haven’t defined what you actually want next.For Aaron Hasler of Spruce Rock Capital, education is the #1 challenge advisors face.He shares a couple of suggestions advisors can follow to improve their education and industry knowledge without having to rely on outdated, generic, advice.Tyson points out the irony of being a financial advisor: Taking financial and retirement planning for granted and not either one for your business.While a business exit may feel emotional, scary, and uncomfortable, Andrea Schlapia sees an exit merely as a good business strategy, rather than a massive event.Tyson emphasizes the importance of understanding “what you’re exiting to, not from.”“If you don’t treat your succession planning like the process that it is, it can turn into this big, overwhelming and unknown process somewhere down the road,” emphasizes Kim.Andrea talks about the steps where she sees advisors having a hard time – and those where they succeed.Since “exiting” is a trigger word for many advisors, Andrea is all in favor of changing the words from exiting to “what’s next.”Andrea concludes by saying that failing to plan is going to equal value erosion.Mentioned in This Episode:TotalSuccession.comTotalSuccession.com/podcastFORM Wealth AdvisorsTyson RayKim CochenourTyson’s book - Total Succession: 5 Steps for Financial Advisors to Exit Confidently, Be Fully Compensated, and Keep Clients’ Interests FirstAaron Hasler on LinkedInSpruce Rock CapitalAndrea SchlapiaEOS