Ep #13: The Basics of A Successful Succession Plan with Christine Sjölin

Christine Sjölin is the Vice President of Strategic Development and Operations at FP Transitions, a specialized consulting firm for wealth managers providing end-to-end solutions for buying, selling, and transforming businesses. Christine joins the show today to discuss the typical succession planning process, as well as how equity ownership deals are generally structured so the younger generations of owners can actually afford the purchase price when valuations can be millions of dollars or more.

Listen in to learn the main reasons succession plans fail and the ideal timeline for a successful succession plan. You'll hear tips for how succeeding generations can better prepare themselves to take over a business, whether more firms are opting for external versus internal successors, and advice for newer planners who want to broach the topic of succession planning with their firm owner.

What You'll Learn In Today's Episode:

How FP Transitions helps advisors and their businesses. (2:14)
Why firms contact FP and what they typically need help with. (7:21)
The types of succession planning and the importance of leadership transition. (11:31)
How to structure compensation for young professionals. (13:51)
How younger advisors can buy into ownership. (15:26)
The benefits of a long-term transition and what can go wrong. (18:40)
How long a transition should be in order to make it successful. (24:40)
How to prepare to take over a firm. (28:30)

Ideas Worth Sharing:

“The way that we talk about succession planning is that gradual internal transition of ownership and leadership to the next generation.”- Christine Sjölin Share on X “If you want to treat your young professionals as professionals, you need to structure their compensation accordingly.”- Christine Sjölin Share on X “Being a young professional and recognizing the perspective and the experiences that your founder has—even while you bring in new vision—is very important to build credibility with that established advisor.”- Christine Sjölin Share on X

Resources In Today's Episode:

Download your free copy of the New Planner Career Roadmap!

In this roadmap, you'll be guided through the details of various stages of your financial planner career, including position descriptions, licensing, skill and experience level requirements, and compensation ranges.