Telling your clients you are stepping back
When to tell clients, what to say, and how the timing affects whether they stay.
When to tell clients, what to say, and how the timing affects whether they stay.
A common approach is to say nothing until the deal, the date and the successor are settled, then tell every client at once in writing. Clients told this way are more likely to leave.
A client who receives a letter saying their adviser of nineteen years is retiring learns three things at once: that you are going, that it has already been decided, and that they were not part of the decision. Whatever the letter says about continuity, the client experiences it as a decision made without them.
A reasonable person's first response is to wonder whether they should look around, because a change is happening anyway.
Tell them early, in person, and before it is all decided. “I am starting to think about the next few years, and I want you to hear it from me first” invites the client into the process. “I have sold the business” tells them the outcome.
Introduce the successor while you are still there. A client who has sat in a meeting with you and their next adviser treats the change as a handover. A client who meets that person after you have gone is being introduced to a stranger by letter.
Do it more than once. Hold three joint meetings over a year. By the third the client is talking to the new adviser more than to you.
Say what changes and what stays the same. Cover fees, the platform, the reporting and the review cycle. If nothing changes, say so specifically. If something does, tell them first.
Clients usually ask four questions. Prepare your answers.
This takes time and needs you to still be at the firm. A conventional sale completes first and introduces afterwards, so the person the client trusts has gone by the time the trust has to move.
An acquirer cannot introduce a successor before they own the relationship, so a straight sale gives the client no handover.
Under Securo the handover happens in the third stage, while you are still advising, and the acquisition in the fourth.
When and how to tell your staff about succession plans, and what to agree about their positions.
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How to reduce owner dependency, which lowers a valuation and can be reduced with one to three years of work.
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How succession options differ for directly authorised firms and for appointed representatives of a network.
Read itSteven Bates, Director of Advisory at Equity & General, takes the first call with every adviser. Ring him on 020 8396 0486 or send a short note about your firm.