The Missing Deliverable: Creating a Value Anchor for Succession and Exit Planning

Two decades ago, advisors had meaningful conversations with clients about retirement, risk tolerance, and long-term goals. But those discussions weren’t followed up with anything tangible. At that time, there was no standard financial plan advisors could hand to their clients as evidence of the work they’d done and as a reference point for clients to refer back to between meetings.

Of course, financial plan deliverables are ubiquitous now. But advisors guiding clients through succession and exit planning are facing the same challenge. Without a standard succession and exit planning deliverable, advisors risk under-serving the two-thirds of small business owners facing the biggest transition of their lives without a documented plan. 

The Real Value of a Planning Deliverable

Deliverables create clarity for clients who are overwhelmed by complexity. They help anchor the value of planning services, document progress over time, and give clients something concrete to share with attorneys, CPAs, and other advisors in the transition process.

Personal financial plans became the industry norm because they turned abstract planning into something clients could see, understand, refer back to, and act on.

Succession and exit planning deserve the same treatment. Right now, most advisors are piecing together Word documents, spreadsheets, and PDFs with no consistent structure or standard approach, making a complex process even more complicated and missing an opportunity to make the value they’re providing clear.

Anatomy of a Succession and Exit Planning Deliverable

A comprehensive succession and exit planning deliverable needs to cover the decision points that matter most to business owners:

• Exit priorities: What matters more to this owner: maximizing proceeds, preserving legacy, taking care of employees, or maintaining flexibility? 
• Timeline: When does the owner want to reduce involvement? When do they want to exit completely? What needs to happen between now and then?
• Goal valuation and liquidity needs: What does the business need to be worth at exit for the owner to meet their financial goals? 
• Ideal exit path. Family transfer, sale to employees, third-party acquisition, or gradual wind-down? 
• Key considerations for that path. If selling to family, how will the purchase be funded? If selling to a third party, what drives value in the eyes of buyers? If transferring to employees, what structure makes sense?
• Visual roadmap of the transition. Owners need to see the process laid out step by step. What happens first? What can wait? Where are the decision points?
• Exit readiness assessment. Is the business ready for transition? Is the owner personally ready? 
• Action items and next steps. What should happen in the next 30, 60, 90 days? Who needs to be involved?

Setting the Industry Standard for Succession and Exit Planning Deliverables

At RISR, we built the first succession and exit planning tool designed specifically for financial advisors. On the platform, advisors can collect data from business owner clients, then generate visual timelines, exit path assessments, and readiness scores in a single client-facing deliverable.

Just like the personal financial plan did 20 years ago, RISR gives advisors the standard approach they need to guide business owners through succession planning. 

You already have the skills you need to have valuable succession and exit planning conversations with clients. Now, the tools exist to add credibility and tangible value to those conversations.

See the industry’s first standard succession and exit planning deliverable. Download a sample Succession and Exit Plan here.