I noticed you had not received a comment on this post from a while back, so I thought I would throw my two cents in just in case you hadn’t made a decision yet. If it were me, I would utilize the transition period of 12 months to capture as much of the current book as you can. If you have solid relationships, the clients will follow. However, the firm that you join is almost the largest factor in my mind. Find a firm that can offer significant operational support (real support, not just ‘transition paperwork’) so that you don’t have to stress on that when you’re meeting with clients. Also, find a firm that can offer your clients some form of a benefit, so that you can position value-added to the clients (rather than just a lateral move from their perspective). You could potentially use this change as a catalyst to move clients more toward fee-based (which could serve as a strong benefit to them) - especially if you’re looking to make this change anyway. Congratulations on the decision and think you’ll love it. One more thing, I’d work to establish your own brand - I wouldn’t use an LPL or a ‘producer group brand’. Your clients are working with you, and I’d guess they’d be excited for you to create your own firm. If I can be a resource for you in any capacity, please feel free to reach out at any time. Best of luck to you in your new venture.

Everything Steve said is right on point! I would use every day of that 12 months and I would use it to make my own “brand”. I went LPL because I am in NY and they seem to be the biggest player around my area for independents. My clients probably don’t even know who LPL is since I made my own LLC to do business under. If you do choose to go that route, some things I would caution about. First, do not use your name in the new “company”. That makes it harder to sell in 20 years and lowers the value (at least it did when I worked at Morgan and was helping value books to buy). From what I have heard, advisors used to use their last name to allow their clients an easy way to find them once they left to get around non competes. In today technology, that isn’t an issue. Secondly, I would be a little concerned about joining an office with 20 others that all have different names on their doors and such. We have several “super” offices like that here and I couldn’t see myself doing that. I found one rep that was actually retiring, moved into their office and had them “partner” in my new “firm”. This allow clients to see that he/we were expanding (when really we weren’t).

All in all, I’ve read some of Steve’s comments and he is very sharp. If he can’t help (which I highly doubt) I am more then willing to offer any assistance I can!

p.s. Hit them straight down in SC!!

As a follow-up point to @indy with respect to naming the practice, depending on the target makeup of your book, you might consider using keywords such as retirement, income, etc. in the company name. This could help the organization place in the various search engines. Not just Google, but IAPD/BrokerCheck, etc.