Picture this: You own a classic 15-year-old Audi Cabriolet convertible. Through upgrades and solid maintenance, it seems to improve with age—until it doesn’t. Eventually, the electronics go awry, the door handle comes off, the top won’t go down, and the transmission fails. Resale value? Close to zero. If you were your own client, you would have told yourself to sell a few years ago in order to maximize value—before the inevitable march of declension.

You arrive at work one morning only to find fire trucks in front of smoking rubble—where your office used to be! Now what? You may tell yourself that your broker/dealer backs everything up. Plus, you have lists of vendors, and you know how to contact your staff in an emergency. But is your office really prepared? Not quite.

Just as some clients ignore the financial risk that comes from neglecting their asset protection and retirement planning needs, some advisors ignore the risk exposure created by the absence of a written continuity or succession plan. This leads me to wonder, “What’s the problem with succession planning for financial advisors?”