What Happens When Your Advisor Retires?
What happens when your advisor retires?
It’s a question almost nobody asks (usually) until it’s happening.
About a third of all U.S. financial advisors plan to retire within the next decade. More than a quarter aren’t even sure of their own succession plan.
So what happens when your advisor retires, but there’s no plan for you?
In this video, Tom walks through why this is a real question for clients. Mainly: what happens when your advisor retires and there’s no plan behind them?
For a lot of families, what happens when your advisor retires is something they’ve simply never thought about.
The answer to what happens when your advisor retires – at many firms, you don’t get a say.
Tom also discusses how a firm built to outlast any one person answers that.
This can leave clients with little control over who takes over their relationship if (when) their advisor leaves. Tom shares his own succession plan: his three CFP sons. Clients won’t be handed off to strangers. The same team that manages his investments (and planning) can continue serving clients long-term.
Takeaways:
- A third of U.S. financial advisors plan to retire within the next decade. Many within five years.
- More than a quarter of them aren’t sure of their OWN succession plan.
- A firm built to outlast any one person is what protects you from that coin flip.
What Happens When Your Advisor Retires – Links
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Subscribe to the Mullooly Asset YouTube Channel
Watch this episode (“What Happens When Your Advisor Retires?”) on our YouTube Channel
Links to Cerulli Report mentioned in this video:
Link 1
Link 2
Worth noting: These are 2024 reports. A July 2025 industry piece confirms the retirement wave is ongoing and that advisors are postponing succession planning. The trend has not reversed.
What Happens When Your Advisor Retires – Transcript
This is the transcript for “What Happens When Your Advisor Retires?”
Here’s something happening in my industry you really ought to know about.
About a third of all financial advisors in this country plan to retire within the next 10 years.
That’s over 100,000 advisors packing it in.
And a good chunk of them are heading out the door in the next five years.
Now, that sounds like an “us” problem, you know, an industry problem.
But it might matter more for you, than you might think.
Meaning there’s a good chance that you won’t know who you’re working with in just a few years.
See, at the same time all these advisors are leaving, there’s going to be more than 11,000 Americans turning 65 every single day.
That’s actually happening right now.
It’s the biggest wave of retirements this country has ever seen.
So on one hand, there’s going to be fewer advisors.
On the other hand, there’s going to be more people who need advisors.
All happening at the same time
And in an article – that we’ll link to in the show notes – more than a quarter of the advisors in that age group aren’t even sure what their own succession plan is going to be.
They don’t really know what’s going to happen next.
Now that may have implications for you.
If they have no succession plan in place, it means that they have no plan for what’s going to happen to you, Mr. & Mrs. Client.
Now, you may think, “Hey, if my advisor retires, the firm just hands my stuff over to someone else.”
And sometimes that works out great.
But you don’t get a say in that.
You could wind up with someone absolutely terrific.
Or you could get someone you would have never picked.
It’s a coin flip, and you don’t hold the coins.
Now here’s why this is personal for me.
I’m 63.
So when I say a third of this industry will be retiring, I’m not talking about other people.
I am in this group.
Now, to be clear, I’m not going anywhere.
But years ago, I prepared for the future.
Mullooly Asset has been around for over 24 years.
The first 10 years, it was just me, as the only advisor.
Then, one at a time, my sons, all three of them, they’re all CFPs, came to work with me.
Not as a favor to dear old Dad.
They all came on board because they wanted to do this.
So the day that I step back, nobody here is getting handed off to a stranger and told, “Good luck.”
The people working with you are the same people who’ve been here all along.
They already know you.
They already know your plan.
And something else. The guys manage MY investments.
They put together MY financial plan.
The guys are my financial planner and investment advisor. They could do the same for you
So we’re learning that a chunk of our peer group doesn’t have a succession plan in place.
Well, this is my succession plan.
Made it years ago.
And you, Mr. and Mrs. Client, you’re the one who benefits from this.
So if a big chunk of the industry retiring soon makes you wonder, “Who’s going to be in my corner five years from now…. 10 years from now?”
That’s a REAL question.
I made sure a long time ago this wouldn’t be an issue for our clients.
And really, building the plan, years before it’s ever needed?
Well, that’s kind of our thing.
That’s our approach.
And if you want to see how planning gets embedded in what we do, watch this video next…..
