Episode summary
Ep 507: Growing Bigger For Succession And Then Intentionally Downsizing For A Simpler Lifestyle P...
Financial Advisor Success (Kitces)
· · Hosts: Michael Kitces · Guests: Carolyn McClanahan
Summary
Carolyn McClanahan describes how Life Planning Partners evolved from a solo practice into a high-touch, flat-fee firm, then deliberately shrank from 100 client households to 65 to restore work-life balance and make succession workable. She says the business now produces about $1.6 million of revenue and manages about $300 million, but the key shift was not financial performance; it was recognizing that growth was creating burnout and that she no longer wanted to keep pushing toward a bigger firm.
Her first succession plan failed because expectations for a younger adviser were not clearly defined. After that, she hired compensation and coaching help to build clearer job descriptions, measurable performance standards, and career paths. Even with those changes, she says the firm was asking too much of too many people at once: training newer advisers, serving complex clients, and maintaining a very demanding planning process that goes well beyond investments.
McClanahan ultimately chose to keep older, more complex, and more local clients, while helping other households find new homes. She also says she is now focused on reducing her own hours to three days a week, staying in the profession for another six to eight years, and working in a way that fits her family life. She argues the profession needs true residency-style training so advisers can learn comprehensive planning before entering small firms.
Key takeaways
- Carolyn McClanahan says she downsized from 100 clients to 65 because the firm’s growth model was driving burnout, not because the business was failing.
- McClanahan’s first succession plan broke down because a younger adviser’s readiness and responsibilities were not clearly defined.
- She says the firm needed measurable career paths, compensation standards, and clearer role definitions before advisers could reliably step up.
- McClanahan kept older, more complex, and more local clients, while referring out the rest to fit her desired lifestyle and succession plan.
- She argues the financial planning profession needs residency-style training so advisers can learn comprehensive planning before joining small firms.
Notable quotes
“I did a very poor job of explaining to my succession plan back then that I basically was going to give him the practice at maybe onetime revenue”
“the big mistake I made is not really good communication around success succession plan”
“I'm not here for that. I'm I'm plenty fine”
How the episode opens
Welcome to the Financial Advisor Success Podcast, where you go behind the scenes with financial planner, speaker, and consultant Michael Kitsus to hear stories of how leading financial adviserss navigated the inevitable challenges that arise on the path to success and get insight from leading industry consultants about how to break through to the next level in your advisory business. And now, here's your host, Michael Kitsus.
Welcome everyone. Welcome to the 57th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast. My guest on today's podcast is Carolyn Mlanahan.
Carolyn is the founder of Life Planning Partners, an RAIA 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 hightouch 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 pursue her goals supporting the planning industry. and how Caroline has created a new succession plan that allows her to continue serving clients while transferring ownership to employees at her firm.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- firm growth
- succession planning
- intentional downsizing
- work-life balance
- advisor compensation
Companies and tickers mentioned
- Life Planning Partners
Watch the episode
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
More from Financial Advisor Success (Kitces)
-
Helping Clients Who Want A Retirement They Can't Afford - Kitces & Carl Ep 203 -
The Top Factors To Consider When A Client Plans To Move Abroad, With Ashley Murphy -
Ep 515: Crafting Deeper Client Relationships To Drive Loyalty, Referrals, And Gain Career Flexibi... -
Key Rules And Pitfalls To Execute Qualified Disclaimers Successfully, With Dave Haughton -
Ep 514: Optimizing A $160M AUM Solo Practice For Client Impact Over Scale with Nick Ibello -
Value-Based Pricing And Charging As Much As The Market Will Bear - Kitces & Carl Ep 202
Financial Advisor Success (Kitces), this episode and its artwork belong to Michael Kitces. Octagon is not affiliated with the show; this page is an independent summary.
