Wealth Managers: Expanding Your Reach through Strategic Succession Planning

Succession Planning Resource Author

As a wealth manager, you want to have the best conversations with your most ideal clients so you can make the biggest impact and grow your business, right? In the ever-evolving landscape of wealth management, there are substantial opportunities for growth and market expansion. As a wealth manager, you have the potential to transform your role as a business advisor to earn the quarterback position through expanding your service offering with strategic and succession planning services. What’s possible when you are sought after by your clients as part of their initial strategic planning process rather than thinking of you as someone to offer a specific product?

In this post, we’ll share some strategies you could explore that might change the way you approach helping your clients solve their challenges. By doing so, you open up new potential revenue opportunities.

Money is not always the best asset.

For many business owners, their most valuable asset is their business. While wealth managers have traditionally focused on investing the proceeds from a sale or liquidation, there is a significant untapped market when it comes to business owners who want to keep, grow, and transition their businesses to the next generation of leadership.

Exit planning is not succession planning. Can you leverage the business as an asset rather than changing it?

For owners who want to retain their business, it’s crucial to develop financial independence from the company. This not only empowers successor development but also allows owners to feel confident in implementing their exit strategy. How are you helping guide your clients into leveraging their business as a strategic asset rather than withdrawing it and changing it?

Diversify Your Services: Tap into Business Owners' Needs

As a wealth advisor already working with business owners, expanding your market is as simple as leveraging the information you already know and helping connect the dots for them. By asking high-quality questions about working capital, reinsurance programs, their family dynamics, their teams, and more, you can identify additional wealth-building opportunities as well as show your ability to think through complex problems. Addressing business owner concerns and challenges, such as growth strategies, leadership transition, and family business dynamics, will enable you to connect deeply with what your clients care about.

The ISPA utilizes a ten-factor, Succession Matrix that looks at all businesses from multiple, interconnected lenses. By understanding how the "Succession Matrix" of issues influences business owner goals and your core service, wealth managers can uncover tremendous opportunities to grow their assets under management, referral network, and revenue.

Embrace Technology: Navigate Succession Planning with Confidence

The fear of stepping into unfamiliar territory is common, but you don't have to face it alone. By expanding your knowledge on succession planning and utilizing succession planning technology, you can identify key issues you feel comfortable addressing and rely on a network of expert advisors for more complex matters. This combination will provide you with a clear path forward and help you provide valuable insights to your clients. ISPA members have access to tools like a “Succession Planning Assessment” that they can guide their clients through which helps uncover potential challenges and opportunities. The technology helps them evaluate their business from multiple angles and demonstrates tremendous value to their clients.

What tools are you currently using in your business that you can productize and create new offers with?

Build Networks and Partnerships: Deliver Comprehensive Solutions

The key to comprehensive services like succession planning is that you don’t need to have all the answers yourself or have complex conversations outside of your scope. Your success comes from being the person who can be the link to resources to help your clients explore more complex solutions. This is most easily accomplished by building your trusted partner network of other service providers who share your same values. By connecting the dots and facilitating outcomes, you can provide solutions to your clients, whether that means having a team member with the necessary expertise or partnering with a trusted strategic ally. Offering a range of value-added services will not only enhance your clients' experience but also create more opportunities to capture Assets Under Management. As the business grows, so do the wealth opportunities for key leaders.

Who do you have in your network that you could work together with and explore opportunities for your clients from multiple perspectives?

Success Stories: Wealth Managers Mastering Strategy and Succession

In the field of financial services, particularly wealth advisory, success is often gauged by the growth of assets under management and the ability to navigate turbulent market conditions. For David and Katie Witter (CSP graduates), the founders of Financial Harvest, their journey has been nothing short of extraordinary. Reflecting on the challenges faced by the financial industry in 2009, David vividly remembers those trying times .In order to truly grasp the needs and difficulties faced by family business owners, David and Katie embarked on a quest to acquire knowledge and confidence in the realm of succession planning. In 2014, they undertook the Certified Succession Planner™ designation program, which equipped them with invaluable insights and tools to better serve their clients.

Back in 2009, Financial Harvest managed 5 MM in assets under management (AUM). Today, their business has grown significantly, currently reaching an impressive 345 MM of AUM. embracing complex succession planning played a significant role in contributing to this remarkable success.

Learn more about the Witter’s experience here.

Certification: Your Authority in Wealth and Succession Management

Succession planning involves a holistic approach to managing wealth, encompassing legal, tax, financial, business strategy, key leader retention programs and family dynamics. With the knowledge and perspective gained by the Certified Succession Planner curriculum, wealth managers can provide more comprehensive solutions to clients, addressing a broader range of needs and ensuring a smoother transition of wealth across generations. By completing a certified succession planner curriculum, wealth managers can enhance their communication skills, which are crucial when facilitating conversations among family members and stakeholders. Training in effective communication allows wealth managers to navigate potentially sensitive discussions and build strong relationships with clients and their families.

Obtaining certification sets wealth managers apart in a competitive market. Having succession planning expertise can lead to new business development opportunities within existing client relationships. Satisfied clients are more inclined to refer you to others who require a holistic approach to wealth management, including their most precious asset, the business. Committing to staying current with industry trends and evolving best practices ensures that the wealth manager remains at the forefront of their field.

In summary, a certified succession planner curriculum can contribute to the growth of a wealth manager's practice by providing specialized knowledge, building trust with clients, offering comprehensive solutions, and facilitating effective communication and collaboration within the field.

Apply this: Explore your hidden opportunities

As a wealth manager, your growth and market expansion potential lies in your ability to adapt and evolve. By understanding the significance of strategic and succession planning for business owners, you can position yourself as a go-to concierge service provider. Embrace the chance to transform your role, expand your knowledge, collaborate with experts, customize your services, build lasting relationships, and utilize technology. Look at your current list of clients and identify just five of them you know there are more complex conversations you could have.

• Are you prepared to have the conversations? What do you need to know first?
• Is there a potential partner that could help you deliver an offer?
• Is there an offer of a more in depth consultation you could build?

By doing so, you can unlock significant growth opportunities and become a trusted advisor in the continuously evolving field of wealth management.

Categories: Testimonials