Where Owners Get Information and Advice

Our research explored how business owners learn about business succession and transition planning. We inquired about three things: information sources by category, specific types of advisers, and whether they use an advisory team. We found that owners use a wide variety of sources to learn about or guide them in their succession and transition planning. However, some sources are used much more than others. 

Among the categorical choices, there were two “go-to” sources: “trusted advisers” (e.g. accountant, attorney, banker…) with 71% of respondents using them and 59% asking “other business owners.” A distant third source was “other” (16%). This category included 19 respondents tapping their lived experience such as previously selling or buying a business or being professional advisers themselves, 7 who were self-taught, 7 asking friends or family, and 5 using their formal education. 

When asked about specific sources such as different professional advisers, key people in their lives, educators, etc., there was a clear pecking order. Accountants (56%), other business owners (51%), and attorneys (45%) were the most used sources. Spouses/partners (29%) and personal financial planners (28%) were in the second tier. Three of these sources (spouses/partners, attorneys, and accountants, respectively) were each statistically significantly correlated with increasing a business’ readiness for transition. In fact, for the owners who used all three advisers, their business readiness was 4.6 on the 6-point scale compared to 3.2 for owners who did not use these advisers. See the chart below.

Some of the owners (16%)  had a formal committee or team of advisers to help with their planning. The vast majority of these teams included the attorney (72%) and accountant (72%). Four other types of advisers were on about a quarter of the advisory groups: bankers and personal financial planners (28%), spouses/partners (26%), and other business owners (24%).