As financial advisors, we spend our careers helping clients prepare for their future—retirement, business transitions, and legacy. Yet when it comes to our own practices, too many of us overlook the planning required to secure the future of what is often our largest and most valuable asset: our advisory business.
That’s where understanding the difference between continuity planning, succession planning, and exit planning becomes critical. While these terms are often used interchangeably, they are definitely not the same thing.
Continuity planning answers one simple but essential question: What happens to my clients and my practice if something happens to me tomorrow?
This is the “unplanned exit” scenario—death, disability, or another unexpected event. A continuity plan ensures your clients are protected, your family is not left scrambling, and your practice doesn’t lose value overnight. In its simplest form, this might be a buy-sell agreement or a continuity partner arrangement with another advisor or your OSJ (as some members of the Horizon Advisor Network have done with us).
Every advisor, regardless of age or growth stage, needs at least a continuity plan in place.
Succession planning goes a step further. It’s about intentionally grooming the next generation of advisors or leaders to take over your practice. This is often thought of in terms of internal succession—mentoring a junior partner or selling equity to younger advisors over time. As is so often the case in the independent advisor space, it can often be a family member, adding to the complexity when there may be other family members not involved in the business.
Succession is more structured and long-term than continuity. Instead of protecting against the “what if,” it’s a proactive strategy to ensure your business lives beyond you, often keeping it in the family or within your firm.
Exit planning, on the other hand, is broader and more comprehensive. It’s not only about who takes over your book of business—it’s about aligning your personal, financial, and business goals for a successful transition.
As a CEPA-certified advisor, I often describe exit planning as the umbrella strategy that covers both planned and unplanned exits. It includes continuity, it includes succession, but it also goes further:
• Maximizing the value of your practice before a sale or merger
• Structuring deals to achieve your financial independence
• Ensuring cultural and client service alignment with the acquiring firm
• Considering tax consequences and estate planning needs
• Addressing your personal “what’s next?” after you exit
In short, exit planning is not just a transaction—it’s a process. And it is one that is in the present, not somewhere down the line when you are ready to call it quits.
At Horizon Financial Group, we’ve lived this firsthand. Over the years, we’ve bought, merged with, and tucked in multiple advisory practices. Each situation was unique and required a different appraoch.
Some came to us because of an unexpected event—a health diagnosis, a partnership split, or a family member in need of more time and attention. Others had been preparing for some period of time, carefully mapping out a succession and eventual exit.
What we’ve learned is this: the advisors who started early, took a proactive approach, and built their practice with an eventual exit in mind experienced the smoothest transitions, the best valuations, and the greatest peace of mind.
Those who only had continuity documents—or worse, nothing at all—often faced chaos, confusion, and a rushed sale under pressure.
Demographics don’t lie: our industry is aging. Thousands of advisors will be retiring or leaving the business in the next decade. Whether you’re five years away from retirement or just five years into building your practice, the time to think about your exit is now.
The reality is, every advisor will exit their business—planned or unplanned. The only question is whether you’ll do it on your terms or someone else’s.
At Horizon, through The Confident Exit podcast and our CEPA-backed process, we help advisors and business owners simplify the complexities of planning for their future. Continuity and succession are important pieces of the puzzle—but true exit planning is what brings it all together.
If you’d like to talk about how your business can prepare for a confident exit, I’d love to connect.
For a comprehensive review of your personal situation, always consult with a tax or legal advisor. Neither Cetera Advisors LLC nor any of its representatives may give legal or tax advice.