Practice Strategies
Florida-Based Investment Advisor Unveils Succession, Business Continuity Program
Global Financial Private Capital, a Sarasota, FL-based independent SEC-registered investment advisor, has implemented a new succession and business continuity program for partner advisors.
Global Financial Private Capital, a Sarasota, FL-based independent SEC-registered investment advisor, has implemented a new succession and business continuity program for partner advisors.
It was developed in conjunction with Advisor Growth Strategies, a practice management consulting firm, and MarketCounsel, a business and regulatory compliance consultancy.
The program offers two programs from which advisors can choose the appropriate business continuity plan. The first (“Advisor to Advisor Continuity”) helps advisors locate an internal or external successor, with whom they then create a continuity agreement through support provided by Global Financial's partner firms.
The second, called “Legacy Lock,” offers advisors a “backstop program” to protect their business, instead of having to find a successor and create an agreement themselves. Global Financial said the program also includes services for the sale and transition of advisors' businesses.
“It is estimated that more than two-thirds of advisors have not established a true business continuity plan, whether it's because they don't have the time needed to develop a comprehensive program, have trouble finding the right successor, or cannot meet the cost of insurance or creating an agreement,” said Geoffrey Frazier, president and relationship director of Global Financial.
Indeed, Family Wealth Report recently spoke to Scott Curtis of Raymond James Financial Services about that very issue.
Curtis said: “Unfortunately, there are today probably a majority of advisors who haven’t taken the steps to establish some sort of succession plan – whether it’s a catastrophic plan in case something unanticipated occurs or just a transition plan,” (view article here).
Meanwhile, two-thirds of firms (67 per cent) reported that they do not have a succession plan ready for implementation, according to the new 2013 Fidelity RIA Benchmarking Study.
