Practice Management: Succession Planning for Accountants

Online Course on Succession Planning for Accountants

As professional accountants grow older their thoughts inevitably turn to their exit – not only from the firm, but from practicing accountancy altogether. If you start to consider your departure from business life, you must consider if the firm you have built up will have value in someone else’s eyes.

During your career you have built relationships with clients, helped them, served them and supported them. Yet the question remains will your firm be worth anything to anyone else? And if so, how much and to whom?

A succession plan allows for your orderly exit. This means it is not left to chance and there is a plan in place which gives a degree of comfort to those involved, particularly staff.

This course is part of a series of courses based on the IFAC Guide to Practice Management for Small and Medium Sized Practices and has been produced with the permission of IFAC.

Work through the knowledge and application modules to understand the theory and exchange your ideas with your peers. Then complete the final Putting it into Practice module to create an action plan for your practice.

Succession Planning enables you to:

• Develop a succession plan
• Value their firm
• Understand the procedures of an internal succession
• Understand the options of shared ownership

Learning outcomes

Understanding succession planning
• Succession planning for the sole practitioner
• Developing your succession plan
• Your future purchaser
• Preparing for your succession plan
• Selecting your succession option

Valuation methodologies
• Valuation of your firm
• Incorporating external factors
• Valuation methods
• Capitalization of future maintainable earnings
• Capitalization rate
• Discounted cash flow
• Rule of thumb
• Net book value

Shared ownership or sale of firm?
• Options for shared ownership
• Thinking about shared ownership
• Partnerships and mergers
• Consolidation
• Sale of firm
• Sale of fee parcel
• Progressive sell-down

Internal succession plans and exit considerations
• Internal succession
• Admission of new partners
• Buyout by existing partners
• Exit considerations

Putting in to practice
This module helps you put the learning from this course in to practice in your firm.

Target audience for Succession Planning for Accountants

This course is suitable for all accounting professionals looking to leave their practice.

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