The Decisions That Get More Expensive Every Year You Wait
Optionality is free to create. It is extremely expensive to procrastinate.
Most advisors lose their optionality one reasonable decision at a time, over several years, and only notice the damage when they arrive at a crossroads and realize the roads are no longer there. Here are the five decisions I see advisors regret most.
1. The Retention Deal That Was Definitely Free Money
Retention money is not free money. We all know that instinctively, but I think so many of us have a hard time modeling what we’re trading for confidently. It is borrowed time with a repayment schedule attached. I have worked with advisors who were ready to make a move, had found something better, and could not act because a deal signed three years earlier made the math impossible. Before signing anything, ask one question: What does this do to my options five years from now?
2. The Brand That Runs Great as Long as You Never Leave
If the name clients trust most is the one on the building rather than the one on the business card, that is fine until it is not. Advisors who protect their optionality invest in things that travel with them: a recognizable niche, real thought leadership, client relationships that belong to them and not the platform. When the relationship belongs to the advisor, the advisor has leverage. The rest is just geography.
3. The Book Full of Products That Live Only at This One Firm
Proprietary products and captive platforms have a way of feeling like minor details right up until you want to move and discover they are not. The question is not whether you plan to leave. It is whether you could. An honest answer to that is worth more than most advisors expect.
4. The Solo Practice That Was Going to Add a Junior Advisor Next Year
Solo advisors have fewer exit options than teams. Teams transition more smoothly, sell more easily, and attract more buyer interest. Most advisors who delay building a bench do so because they are busy. That is also, not coincidentally, the exact wrong reason.
(The succession problem is one I help with. Click here if you have questions about how to find an acquiring partner who has the culture and financials to provide the exit you’re looking for.)
5. The Evaluation That Started the Week Everything Went Wrong
The worst version of this conversation is the one that starts with: I should have called you two years ago. Decisions made under pressure favor speed over fit. The advisors who come out of transitions in the best position are almost never the ones who were running away from something.
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Optionality costs nothing to build when you have time. It becomes remarkably expensive the moment you actually need it and realize you have been meaning to get around to it.
Start before you have to. That is genuinely the whole idea.