1. You need to make sure your succession plan ties in with the firm’s strategic plan.

If the business was headed one way under your leadership, and things were humming along nicely, sale to a firm with goals diametrically opposed to your own will be a recipe for disaster.

Why start now?

7. It can cost time, money, and a positive outcome if you don't plan.

According to a Franklin Templeton report, RIAs who don't adequately allow enough time and seek enough expertise to execute a transition—whether they’re selling or just handing over the reins internally—could cost their firm, their clients and their employees the best possible outcome of the handover.

And the potential for a prosperous future.

But wait -- there's more...

6. If you make a bad exit, you can jeopardize the future of the firm itself.

A Harvard Business Review report points out that “between 2003 and 2015 one in every seven CEO retirements in the S&P 500 was followed by the forced departure of the new CEO within the first three years, 85 percent of them due to low performance or forced by the board or activist investors.” Maybe your firm isn’t part of the S&P 500, but that doesn’t mean that it can’t fall prey to the same problems. From the report: “Leaders find it hard to let go, which makes otherwise intelligent and pragmatic people behave in irrational ways.” (All photos: Shutterstock)

5. You might need help.

Maybe you didn’t call in outside consultants to start your business, but that doesn’t mean you’re an expert in how to exit from it. An outsider won’t have the perhaps unrealized prejudices you or your board may have toward certain candidates, can be more impartial in the selection process and will be more familiar with the legal ins and outs of the process.

4. You need a plan for afterward.

If you don’t know what you’re going to do once you turn over the business to someone else’s care, you might be more tempted to procrastinate—or even to sabotage the whole process, however unconsciously it may happen. If, on the other hand, you have a personal retirement plan in place, even if that’s launching yet another business venture, there’s an objective for you to anticipate with enthusiasm and energy.

3. You need to be ready to truly leave when you leave.

Don’t hamstring the new company head by “keeping your hand in” and muddling decisions or steering them the way you would choose for them to go. Once someone else has succeeded you at the helm, it’s their baby, for good or ill.

2. You need to let your clients in on the process.

The American Lawyer points out that no client wants to walk in to find a brand-new person responsible for their care with no forewarning or opportunity to get to know them and judge for themselves whether that new person will be a good fit for their needs.

1. You need to make sure your succession plan ties in with the firm’s strategic plan.

If the business was headed one way under your leadership, and things were humming along nicely, sale to a firm with goals diametrically opposed to your own will be a recipe for disaster.