The year after you stop advising
Preparing for the change in your working life after the sale, as well as for the transaction.
Preparing for the change in your working life after the sale, as well as for the transaction.
Plan the weeks after the sale as carefully as the sale itself.
Your career has been spent on the financial side of retirement. This article covers what the job provided besides income.
When you stop advising, you also lose the four things below.
Being needed. For thirty years the phone rang because somebody had a problem you could help with. Its absence can take time to adjust to.
The structure of the week. The diary gives you meetings, deadlines and a reason to be somewhere. Removing the diary in one weekend leaves a gap that can take months to fill.
Keeping your expertise current. Within eighteen months of leaving, your technical knowledge is out of date. That can feel strange after decades of being the person in the room with the answer.
Your client relationships. Some clients become friends over twenty years. After a sale those relationships change, and it can be awkward to know how to handle them.
A gradual handover makes the change easier because these four things end at different times. You stop being the named adviser before you stop coming in, and you stop coming in before you stop knowing what is going on. That sequence is a reason to consider a staged arrangement in addition to the financial terms.
The decision to stop is still yours to make. At some point there will be a last meeting.
Put it in the diary. Advisers who planned to work it out afterwards tend to find the change harder.
For example, a non-executive role, a charity’s investment committee or two days a month of mentoring. The purpose is the work itself.
Some of them will, and what is kind to them may not be easy for you.
Expect the first year to be the hardest.
These suggestions are not financial advice. They come from advisers who have been through it.
How the change to inheritance tax on pensions affects your own pension and the timing of your exit.
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The relief is still there, at a higher rate than before, and whether it applies depends on what is sold, by whom, and how the money reaches you.
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During a transfer, each client's ongoing fee depends on paperwork, platform processes and a service agreement the client has seen. Each needs checking before the transfer.
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.