Succession Is Not an Exit Plan — It’s a Business Strategy (Preferably Started Before You’re Tired)

I recently sat on a panel focused on succession, transition, and valuation. One truth kept surfacing: most advisors think about succession about 10 years too late.

For many founders, succession lives in the same “drawer of great ideas” (IYKYK) as estate planning, updating the CRM, creating formal job descriptions, and organizing that file cabinet from 2007.

Important? Yes. Urgent? Not today. Until one day, it is.

But succession really shouldn’t be a “someday” project. It’s not something you do when you’re ready to slow down. It’s not a binder you dust off when a buyer appears. And it’s definitely not a conversation you want to start when you’re exhausted.

Succession is a long-term business strategy. And the firms that get it right don’t start with succession planning. They start by building a business that can function beautifully without the founder.

The Real Succession Risk Isn’t Finding a Buyer

Many of the advisors I have worked with started out thinking that the biggest succession challenge would be: Who will buy my firm?

However, after our initial consulting discussions, they realized that the bigger question is: Could anyone run and growth this firm if I weren’t here?

In many practices, clients tend to be loyal to the founder rather than to the firm. Essential philosophies, relationships, and processes are often stored only in the founder’s mind, making them inaccessible to others. Team members typically understand their individual tasks but lack a comprehensive grasp of the overall business operations. Growth is frequently fueled by the founder’s personality instead of established systems, and as a result, no one else truly knows how everything works.

That’s not a succession problem. That’s a key-person risk problem that quietly erodes valuation, transition options, and successor confidence.

Stable Organic Growth Is a Succession Strategy (Yes, Really)

Here’s the part most advisors don’t connect:

Firms that grow through repeatable systems are transferable. When growth is driven by a documented service model, a defined client experience, effective referral and marketing systems, clear team roles, and standardized workflows, the business becomes structured and resilient. This foundation ensures that a successor can step in and the machine keeps running, allowing for a seamless transition and continuity of operations.

When growth depends on the founder’s memory, charisma, and ability to “make it happen,” the next generation inherits a mystery novel with missing chapters.

Buyers and successors are not looking to inherit a personality; they are looking to inherit a working machine.

Being a Great Advisor vs. Being Ready to Run a Firm

Another theme from the panel: founders often choose successors because they’re excellent with clients.

That’s necessary. It is not sufficient. A successor must be ready not only to serve clients but also to lead people, manage operations, drive growth, make business decisions, and preserve and evolve the firm’s culture. True readiness for ownership goes beyond technical expertise; it requires the ability to guide a team, oversee the business, foster continued development, make strategic choices, and uphold the values that define the organization.

I’ve seen phenomenal advisors struggle as new owners — not because they couldn’t serve clients, but because no one ever taught them how to run a business. They inherit staffing issues, inefficient processes, financial responsibilities, and growth expectations… and suddenly realize they were trained to be an advisor, not a CEO.

That’s when lifelong work starts to slowly unravel due to poor business and people management.

The Shift from Founder-Led to Firm-Led (Before It’s Urgent)

The smoothest transitions occur in firms that shift years in advance from founder-led to firm-led.

You see it when clients interact with multiple team members, decisions are made by a leadership team, processes are documented and followed, team members own outcomes, and growth is measured at the firm level, not personal production

Ironically, when founders do this well, they create the freedom they thought succession would someday give them.

Start Succession Planning at Peak Growth, Not Peak Fatigue

The optimal time to begin succession planning is when the firm is performing at its best. This process involves strengthening the business, building leadership bench strength, implementing effective systems, reducing key-person risk, and creating transferable value. By focusing on these areas during periods of peak growth, firms not only prepare for eventual transitions but also reinforce their overall foundation and set themselves up for enduring success.

Those are growth strategies. Not exit strategies.

How AssetMark Is Investing to Help Advisors Do This Right

This is exactly why AssetMark has invested in programs like Ascent, which provides education and training for key advisor and leader career levels, and AssetMark Growth Consulting, designed to exponentially accelerate organic growth.

These programs are not about telling advisors to “do better” or “grow more.” They are designed to help advisors:

• Build repeatable growth systems

• Implement consistent service models

• Create operational clarity

• Develop leadership within their teams

• Position successors to lead a business, not just a book of clients

• Reduce key-person risk long before a transition is needed

In other words, they help advisors build firms that are valuable, durable, and transferable.
Whether your goal is exponential organic growth, preparing the next generation to lead, or eventually transitioning the business when the time is right, these programs are built to address the exact factors that determine whether succession is smooth or painful.

Questions Founders Should Be Asking Themselves Now

Years before a transition, ask yourself:

• If I disappeared for 90 days, would the firm grow, stall, or decline?

• Do clients trust the firm or just me?

• Could my team explain exactly how we deliver our service model?

• Is our growth repeatable without me?

• Am I preparing a successor to serve clients, or to run a business?

If those questions make you slightly uncomfortable, congratulations — you’ve found the starting point for real succession planning.

The Legacy Question Most Advisors Miss

The real question is not: What will my firm be worth when I sell it?

It’s: Will my firm still be excellent five years after I leave?

That outcome is determined years in advance by the systems you build, the leaders you develop, and how intentionally you move from founder-dependent to firm-driven.

Succession isn’t about how you exit. It’s about whether what you built can endure.

Want Help Building a Firm That Can Outlive You?

If you’re thinking about how to drive sustainable growth, prepare a successor to lead as a business owner, or eventually transition your firm with confidence, AssetMark’s team can help. You can learn more about Ascent, Growth Consulting, and succession-focused business strategies by contacting AssetMark at 800-664-5345.

©2026 AssetMark, Inc. All rights reserved.

8774644.1 | 2/2026 | EXP 2/29/2028