If you are a responsible business owner, or simply a responsible income earner providing for others in your family, you likely have some sort of succession plan in place. You have the veteran employee who is ready to take over the business, you have funding strategies in place, and you have all of the necessary insurance to make sure that your family is taken care of after you’re gone. Can you say the same about your advisor?
My first day on this job was December 3rd, 2012. Three short years later, my father and business mentor was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer, and given 12-15 months to live. While this news was obviously shattering on a personal level to our entire family, it applied a particular professional pressure as well. Everything we had told business owners and professionals to plan for in a crisis, we were required to execute, with little time to spare.
With the double trial of personal and professional hardship came a double blessing. We executed Mark’s back-up plan with precision (thanks in large part to excellent leadership at Keating), and with a whole lot of prayer, Mark eventually beat cancer.
It isn’t just the seasoned advisors to worry about either. Death or illness can strike anyone (don’t ask me how I know). And if that doesn’t get you, sometimes industry attrition does (advisors have worse failure rates than small businesses in general in America, and that’s saying something). So what is the succession plan for your financial plan? If your advisor doesn’t have one, let’s solve that together.