Most advisors have heard the classic succession advice:
Start early.
Hire a junior.
Train them for 5, 10, even 15 years.
Hand them the practice when you’re ready.
It sounds responsible. It sounds “disciplined.”
But in the real world, this approach usually fails and worse, it often costs advisors the one thing they can’t afford to lose in succession: control.
The Problem Isn’t the Idea, But the Odds
If you hired a junior advisor 10 years ago and they turned into a capable, bankable successor, that’s fantastic.
But here’s what most advisors already know from experience:
Most people don’t make it in this business.
The success rate for independent advisors is under 10%. That means if your succession plan depends on grooming “the next you,” you’re betting your life’s work on a single-digit probability.
And it gets worse.
Even within that small percentage who stay in the industry, only a fraction become truly bankable, meaning they have the leadership ability, risk tolerance, capital access, and desire to buy a practice at fair value.
So what started as a “safe” plan becomes a long-term gamble.
The Hidden Cost: You Give Up Control Early
Here’s what grooming a successor really does:
It locks you into one outcome.
You’re no longer building for optionality. You’re building around a person, and that person is outside your control.
Even if you’re the best mentor, the best leader, the best teacher… you cannot guarantee how someone else will turn out.
You can’t control ambition.
You can’t control leadership maturity.
You can’t control whether they stay in the industry.
You can’t control whether they’ll ever be ready to write the check.
But in many internal succession paths, advisors behave as if they can.
That’s how retirement gets delayed, not because the practice isn’t valuable, but because the plan wasn’t actually a plan. It was a hope.
A Better Approach: Groom the Practice, Not the Person
Advisor Hunt doesn’t recommend making your entire succession plan dependent on grooming a junior for 10–15 years.
Instead, we recommend a simpler, more controllable strategy:
1) Build the strongest practice you can
You control this. The service model, the client relationships, the cleanliness of operations, that’s all within your reach.
2) Define what you want from succession
Do you want to stay involved or exit cleanly?
Do you want cash upfront or a higher upside over time?
What kind of successor best serves your client base?
3) When you’re ready, take it to market
A strong, transferable practice attracts real buyers. Your options expand. Your leverage increases. And you choose the best fit for your life and your clients.
A Simple Checklist for This Week
- Have I built a leader or just a very good employee?
- Would an external buyer value my practice more than my internal plan can support?
- Am I building optionality or locking myself into one outcome?
Grooming your successor isn’t wrong. But it’s a roll of the dice.
The most successful successions focus on building a practice that is valuable, transferable, and independent of any one person.
“Leave your clients in the best hands possible.”
“Your Legacy. Our Mandate.”