If I asked you to define partnership, what would you say? It’s a challenging question because partnerships mean different things to different people. For many advisors I speak with, a partnership is a structure that provides certain benefits. Specifically, it allows them to expand scale and capacity, maximize operational efficiency, create economies of scale, foster redundancy of skill sets, and establish a firm identity rather than one based solely on the personality of the founder.

With summer underway and your clients on vacation, you book time to tackle the projects you had set aside during busier months. But when that Monday after a summer weekend arrives, you have to muster up the energy to begin working on the jobs you’ve been putting off. Whether you have a simple list of tasks—such as updating client reports—or a longer-term project—such as rewriting website content—getting started can be a challenge.

If you google “client advisory board + financial advisor,” you’ll end up with more than 3 million results from a host of sources you’re probably familiar with: Michael Kitces, Financial Advisor magazine, sponsor companies, and others. Many of these results speak to the power of an advisory board in giving strategic insight on how you can better position your services and grow your firm.

Are you thinking of buying or selling your practice? If so, you are also likely thinking of the material difference that taxes will make in the value of your assets or revenue stream. While you never want the “tax tail wagging the deal dog,” some forethought to the tax implications can help you transact a deal that aligns with your expected net values.

Prospecting is tough. No one really likes to do it, and very few advisors are naturally good at it. If only you could clone your best clients. I hear advisors wistfully mention this idea as they think about the implications of having a practice full of dream clients.

Cloning would be great. But short of that, where else can you find ideal new clients? The answer might be quite literally staring you in the face: your clients’ children or grandchildren.