When considering an exit plan, it is important to remember the journey. The ups and downs. The perseverance and tenacity to be leaders amongst your peers. These stats may resonate:
· 20% of new businesses don’t survive their first year.
· 30% of these will fail in their second year.
· Only 50% will make it to year five.
· 30% of these businesses survive the thick and thin, to year ten.
Lack of a plan
A new study from FP Canada has indicated that the average age of the insurance professional is 59. However, as it applies to succession planning, especially within the insurance industry, 69% of Canadian advisors have indicated that they are nearing retirement, yet only 11% have a formalized plan.
What may be most interesting about those insurance professionals who reach the point of sale of their practice unprepared to move forward is understanding HOW they came to be in the insurance industry in the first place. So many start as “salespeople” hired by a larger corporation, to “sell” the product of insurance. From there, they build their client base, go independent, hire staff and build their practice. Then what?
Then what, indeed.
Often, we hear “someone will buy it”.
Really?
· Who?
· When?
· How?
· And for how much?
The Client’s Best Interest
Or we hear, “I’ll do this until I can’t do it any longer”. The whole, “I’ll die at my desk” attitude. That could happen. But for an industry so focused on working in the client’s best interest, that strikes the author as a little self-serving. Is it in the client’s best interest? Only the reader can determine that but consider the average age of the Canadian advisor.
While new or current customers may not want to hear that their advisor is planning out their exit strategy, typically there’s comfort in knowing that there’s a plan in place. It shows respect for yourself and your business and reinforces the advice provided to clients on this very topic.
According to studies,
Only 3% of advisors have a written
plan in place in the event that they
become ill, disabled or die.
More than 90% of clients both
believe and expect that their advisor
is prepared for an unexpected exit
from their business.
We’d be pleased to engage in a meaningful conversation on this and other benefit topics. Give us a call.
Note: this was written without the aid of Artificial Intelligence (AI)
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