Filling your shoes

Succession planning requires creating your own successors

I was fortunate enough to be quoted in a recent Accounting Today article with the above title.
A few excerpts below
The first step for a CPA firm looking to improve its succession plan is to make sure that it actually has one.

They’re all too often absent at accounting firms. “Most firms don’t have any plan,” maintained Robert Fligel, president of New York-based CPA growth and succession consultancy RF Resources. “Even to do a memo would be a major accomplishment.”

Statistics bear that out, as just 35 percent of multi-owner firms and 9 percent of sole proprietors had a written succession plan in place, according to the most recent succession survey conducted by the PCPS Section of the American Institute of CPAs.

In a 2010 WealthStar Alliance survey of accounting firm partners, 94 percent of respondents said succession planning was important or very important, but just 31 percent reported having a succession plan in place.  The survey also found that 55 percent of firms plan to make a transition in management or ownership within five years, and 87 percent expect to in the next 10, making the issue especially urgent.
I know that all of you hard working CPAs are probably feeling very overwhelmed right now with the April 15 deadline looming.  But, I do encourage you to take a short breather and put on your calendar for perhaps the week of April 25th ” Set up a partner meeting to start the discussion to create a succession action plan”

Or call me.  It never hurts to talk!

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