Welcome everyone! Welcome to the 507th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!
My guest on today’s podcast is Carolyn McClanahan. Carolyn is the founder of Life Planning Partners, an RIA based in Jacksonville, Florida, that oversees $300 million in assets under management for 65 client households.
What’s unique about Carolyn, though, is how she grew her firm to more than 100 clients before deciding to downsize to improve her work-life balance as she also executes a succession plan.
In this episode, we talk in-depth about how Carolyn initially planned to grow her advisor team to handle increased client demand (with her firm closing and reopening to new clients over time), how Carolyn invested significant effort in training new employees on her high-touch planning process (hoping that doing so would pay off by developing potential successors), and how Carolyn ultimately had to face the prospect of departures of younger employees who wanted to pursue different paths (forcing her to start over with new hires).
We also talk about how Carolyn worked with business coaches to ensure that she offered competitive compensation and development plans for employees and to help her and her staff align their life goals with their professional paths, how Carolyn ultimately made the decision to downsize her client base to have more free time for herself and to pursue her goals supporting the planning industry, and how Carolyn has created a new succession plan that allows her to continue serving clients while transferring ownership to employees at her firm.
And be certain to listen to the end, where Carolyn shares how she set criteria to determine which clients to keep at her firm and which to let go, how Carolyn evaluated other firms to help departing clients find an appropriate advisory home, and how Carolyn (who is also a physician) advocates for medical-style residency programs in the financial planning industry.
So, whether you’re interested in learning about navigating hiring challenges while also planning for succession, downsizing a client base in a tactful manner, or thinking about what you truly want to get out of firm ownership, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Carolyn McClanahan.
