16 Ways To Leave Your Financial Firm

The best planning processes keeps the end goal in mind.

While creating their Business Blueprint, I ask all new clients the question “how do you want to exit your firm”. The most common answers are:

1. I want to drop dead at my desk
2. Why do we need to talk about that for?  (especially if they’ve just gone independent, but usually the answer for anyone under 40)

Yet dying at your desk will create numerous problems for your estate and that sort of strategy will only hurt your family and staff — and your clients!.   In fact, financial advisors and planners, CPAs, etc.  are acutely aware that having ownership in a business upon death isn’t a good financial planning.

But when you get down to brass tactics, it’s as important to create a vision for the way you want to exit your business as it is for creating a 12-month Action Vision.  You’ll use both visions (and goals) to grow your business and make better business decisions..  How you expect to exit a business has different affects on how you’d run the business now and over time.

How might you leave your business.  There is no time, like now, to develop a vision for your exit.  Below are 16 ways to consider as you decide what your succession plan will look like.
• Drop dead at their desk
• Become disabled
• Get divorced or spouse dies
• Sell to an outside 3rd party
• Sell the company to employees ESOP
• Sell the company to one or two key employees
• Creates a public company IPO it
• Hire a CEO and become a manager or employee.
• Retain ownership but passively run it
• Transfer, leave or sell the company to family members
• Drive the company to the ground
• Leave the company to languish on it’s own

• Get tired of the business and want to start something different
• Liquidate it
• Franchise It
• License It
• Other

(c) 2013 Elevating Your Business

What does your succession plans look like?