Still Working?

I’ve met many advisors who have reached or exceeded their traditional retirement age who have no intention of quitting their job. The smart ones, like Mike Hines of Consolidated Planning Corp. in Atlanta, say they enjoy their work too much to quit. But in an interview I conducted with Hines about IA 35 for 35 honoree Tom James (he’s been affiliated with RJ for 40 years), sitting right next to him was Hines’ much-younger successor-in-waiting, Varun Marneni. Hines explained that he cares too much for his clients to not have an exit strategy that will keep those clients in good hands, even if he leaves his office feet-first.

Right before the Envestnet Advisor Summit in May, I caught hold of CEO Jud Bergman and commented that he was looking good. He put on a half-grin and asked if it would be all right if he quoted me in his speech. I said yes, and a few minutes later I heard Bergman relate a story his father had told him about aging. “When you’re young,” his father had said, “people ask you how you’re doing. When you’re old, they tell you that you look good.” So Bergman told the 1,600 attendees: “Jamie, what you said to me was no compliment.”

The lesson to me was that you can look good while you’re also doing well, and that I was now a member of that over-60 club who was still “working” and had little intention of stopping, even if my future “work” has more to do with doing good than doing well, much as Father Tony was continuing to do in his 70s.

Are your clients in a similar position? Are they figuring out the next stage in their life, now that they’ve accumulated assets and educated children? Give them second-career guidance, I’d suggest, just as you do investment or charitable or estate planning advice. And increasingly, advisors should follow Mike Hines’ succession program—it’s good for the owner, for employees and it certainly seems like the fiduciary thing to do for clients, whether the SEC requires a succession plan or not.