According to Cerulli Associates, 109,000 financial advisors will retire between 2024 and 2034, representing 37.5% of the industry’s headcount and 41.5% of total assets.
Despite these numbers, many advisors still approach succession planning as a future problem rather than a current growth strategy. But we believe succession planning is less about your exit and far more about building something worth buying.
Building a Business Beyond Yourself
The difference is distinct. A book of business is personal; an enterprise is valuable and transferable.
When everything in your practice depends on you, you’ve created a future liability. Buyers don’t purchase dependency. They purchase predictable cash flow, documented systems, and diversified client relationships that survive transition.
Advisors who understand this dynamic don’t wait until year 58 to think about continuity; instead, they embed it into their operations from day one by building teams, documenting processes, and creating brand equity that exists independent of their personal reputation.
Early Succession Structures Drive Growth
When you begin succession planning well in advance of your intended retirement (15 years or more), you create a compounding growth effect:
- You attract different talent. The advisor who sees a pathway to ownership engages differently than the one collecting a paycheck. They think like an owner because they can become one.
- Client retention improves. When clients know there’s a plan, when they’ve met the next generation, when continuity is explicit rather than implied, they stop worrying about what happens if you’re not there.
- Operations streamline. You can’t transfer what you can’t systematize or scale what only exists in your head. The process of building for a transition makes you better at building for growth.
Systems Create Value, Not Just Revenue
The U.S. wealth management industry recorded over 300 M&A transactions in 2024, with valuations rising fastest for practices offering strong recurring revenue, scalable systems, and younger client bases.
Notice what’s on that list: systems and demographics, not just AUM.
A practice built on one advisor’s Rolodex and personal relationships gets discounted, while one with documented workflows, operational specialists, and future-forward technology gets a premium.
We developed the supported independence model at Silver Oak to create this exact infrastructure. Advisors can scale without the bureaucracy that kills autonomy. They work with specialists who understand carrier requirements, compliance nuances, and multi-custodial environments so they can focus on client relationships instead of processing bottlenecks.
Developing Future Leaders
If you’re waiting until the last three years to identify a successor, you’re already too late.
Buyers are looking for engaged, diversified, multi-generational practices, and next-gen advisors need client exposure, strategic responsibility, and a reason to stay beyond salary. Mentorship takes time. Shared ownership takes structure. Career pathways take intentionality.
When you begin building that culture early, your succession plan becomes a competitive advantage.
Supported Independence: The Silver Oak Difference
Supported independence gives you the freedom to design your legacy on your terms. You get access to operational specialists who handle Reg BI complexity so you can focus on growth. You get technology that connects everything seamlessly instead of creating bottlenecks.
You can build an enterprise instead of just managing a book.
Ask yourself: if you looked at your practice through a buyer’s eyes right now, what would they see? A business that runs without you, or one that collapses the day you step away?
Legacy means building something that outlasts you.
If you’re ready to stop thinking about succession as an exit plan and start using it as a growth strategy, let’s talk.