For all the talk of succession planning, stats say the industry is falling short

44 per cent of advisors within ten years of retirement still don’t have a succession plan. That’s perhaps the most alarming and immediate statistic from the 2026 Advisor Perception Industry Study released by IG Wealth Management today. Many advisors surveyed highlighted a dearth of dealer support as a cause for their lack of a plan. 57 per cent of respondents said dealer support for succession plans was fair or worse, and 52 per cent said their dealers were fair or worse at managing client transitions.

Brent Allen sees this gap in succession planning as a product of demographic forces more than the failings of any individual dealer. The Executive Vice President and Head of Sales and Distribution at IG Wealth Management says that there are growing barriers facing young people as they try to enter the advice business or make the jump from a bank-based financial planner to an entrepreneurial financial advisor. He explained how his firm has worked to make the economics of succession work better for everyone involved in an eventual transition from work.

“It really is a demographic issue that has emerged. The challenge is just we’re not bringing as many people into the industry because the traditional way to do that through things like commissions is largely gone. Now you need a block of assets or a book of business to be able to generate enough advisory fee revenue to be sustainable,” Allen says. “The industry’s really had to think about how we are going to bring new people in. And my view is this study absolutely reinforce that all the companies in Canada really need to think about their talent strategy and have one to replace those advisors because without it, over time things will crunch.”

Are Advisors too focused on clients to secure succession?

Allen says he was heartened that the survey found 70 per cent of advisors prioritized client care over any other factor in their succession plans, including getting a fair price for their business. That stems, he argues, from advisors overall prioritization of their clients and client care. They spend so much time thinking about their clients and the day to day management of their practices, that they don’t plan for succession.

Advisors, he says, may spend 50,000 hours building their practice but they’ll only spend 500 hours making a succession plan, interviewing candidates, or collaborating with a possible successor. The ratio of time spent building the business and time spent planning succession is too lopsided, he says, adding that this is a common trend among many Canadian small and medium-sized enterprises.

There needs to be an understanding, Allen says, that succession is a process, not an event. He likens it to retirement, which advisors spend so much time planning for their clients. While it all might culminate in a single handover moment, there’s so much that happens before and after to make it successful. He notes that the advisors he’s seen with succession plans have been working on them for five to ten years, and working alongside their designated successor for nearly as long. If client care is the advisor’s priority, then they need to ensure their successor has earned their clients’ trust.

Dealers’ role in the succession process

The results of the survey show a high degree of advisor dissatisfaction with the support their dealers have given them so far. Allen says that dealers’ role in the process should be “part art part science.” The science part is straightforward, it’s checklists and timelines and administrative support required to set up a succession plan. It involves making sure everything is digitized and secure, easy to hand over without headaches and heartache. The art part is more difficult.

Dealers can play that role as a plan analyst, assessing whether the designated successor is right for every client or if there are other advisors who may be better suited to certain clients in a practice. It involves navigating the complex relationship between dealers and entrepreneurial advisors, where questions of independence and support can sometimes struggle to coexist. Allen’s answer is to focus on aligned interest in client care and client retention. Once that shared goal is established the structure of a dealer’s succession planning services can be implemented.

At IG Wealth Management, Allen explains, that plan begins with the insistence that a retiring advisor adds another licensed advisor to their team and maintains a ratio of roughly 200 families per advisor. It also involves the facilitation of a contractually guaranteed payment to the retiring advisor for the value of their book. The firm, he says, helps finance the acquisition of the book of business by the succeeding advisor. He contrasts that with other dealer models where the transaction is limited to the retiree and their successor and notes that while this works in an up market, the risk comes if markets decline as the successor is dealing with significant operating leverage. He adds that the dealer can help younger advisors with few assets of their own make the jump into entrepreneurship, especially given the size and value of some books of business today.

Building the financial pathways to advisor succession is one piece for dealers. The other, Allen insists, is building a talent pipeline. He notes his own firm’s focus on an internship program that in the past ten years turned 500 interns into 150 IG advisors. He believes that this responsibility lies with dealers, and that if dealers aren’t planning to bring in talent and facilitate their succession into entrepreneurial practices, it will eventually hurt their business.

“And if you don’t provide the confidence that the people taking over are well trained, well educated, certified, all the things that you would want if someone was transitioning a practice, then there would be leakage and clients and assets will leave and take that opportunity to go someplace else,” Allen says.  And so it’s a math problem, but it’s not just a math problem. It’s a human problem. Meaning that you have to do this well because it is good for business… But I also think it’s just the right thing to do.”