When establishing a selling strategy you must give significant thought to the factors that are driving your decision to sell, your goals and objectives in selling your practice, and the options available to you as a seller. Generally speaking there are three major options for extracting value from your firm. They include:

Internal Succession – Generally speaking the internal succession strategy allows you to transition your practice to key employees within your practice. This can be done over time through methods such as an installment sale or ESOP plan.

External Transition – A significant number of advisors consider selling their practice to an external party because either they so not have an internal successor established or are concerned about maximizing their financial gain from selling the practice.

Partnership Track – For some advisors the creation of a partnership track may provide long-term liquidity while facilitating the growth of the practice and a career track for employees. In most cases this strategy should be implemented over a long period of time (5-15 years).

Regardless of the strategy you decide to implement it is important to put together a well defined plan that will address the issues that may impact all the parties involved – you, your clients, your staff, and your heirs.