According to Walker, demand for CWB Maxium Financial’s lending services is overwhelmingly driven by succession planning, which has been accelerated by the pandemic. After years and potentially decades of effort and dedication to their practices, many seasoned advisors are recognizing the need for balance in their lives; following the challenges of the pandemic, some have made up their minds to evaluate and implement succession plans and opportunities.
Lockdowns imposed during the pandemic, as well as recent changes in the regulatory environment, have accelerated the urgency for practices to move to a more digital format. That, in turn, has lent itself to more consolidation and succession planning conversations to take advantage of various economies of scale.
“We’ve seen extremely disruptive changes in the past two years,” Walker says. “Based on our experience in the industry, many advisors who are looking at succession planning timelines of two, three, or five years are realizing that they need to start now. We certainly would like to be involved as early as possible in that process.”
Mounting regulatory pressure may prompt more veteran wealth professionals to consider an earlier and more gradual exit. Rather than exiting abruptly, they could sell stakes of their business over several years, as they gracefully step away from their practice. That would allow them to pass on some of the added administrative burden to successors, ensure that everything transitions accordingly, and continue doing the work they love for a little longer before retiring completely.
“By providing advisors with financing and support throughout the whole process, we aim to be the bridge between someone developing their succession plan and bringing that plan to fruition through a transaction and transition to a new advisor,” says Tom de Larzac, Director, Financial Advisory.
