David DeVoe wants to answer a question that he says three-fifths of advisors can’t answer: What is your succession plan?
San Francisco-based DeVoe & Company is launching SuccessionWorks, a consulting platform aimed at helping advisors determine what will happen to their business -- and their clients -- after they leave the planning profession.
“This will be a comprehensive program that will enable advisors to efficiently solve their succession and continuity challenges,” says DeVoe. “This is going to be a multifaceted program that provides them with the opportunity to work one-on-one with DeVoe & Co., within their firms, in groups and in workshops on succession plans.”
To help introduce SuccessionWorks, DeVoe is bringing on some big guns. Tim Kochis, CEO of the consultancy Kochis Global and previously the CEO and chairman at southern California mega-RIA Aspiriant, will join DeVoe & Company as managing director.
In addition to his long tenure in the advisory trade, Kochis also co-authored a book on advisor business transitions in 2015, Success and Succession: Unlocking Value, Power and Potential in the Professional Services and Advisory Space.
“This is a great marriage for DeVoe & Company,” says DeVoe. “Tim’s experience is rich, he’s not only been a CEO, but he’s implemented succession plans and variations of succession plans and he has a lot of passion for this space – it’s one of his core interests.”
SuccessionWorks provides training and consultation to advisors of all stripes to create a clear roadmap for their business’s future.
DeVoe says that succession planning is particularly difficult because it involves multiple variables that require advisors to make choices: internal versus external succession, valuation, deal structure, equity and management migration, continuity, merger options, strategic planning and implementation are just some of the possible components that SuccessionWorks will address.
Recognizing that addressing such a wide variety of concerns could be time consuming for advisors and consultants alike, SuccessionWorks will combine technology with DeVoe’s personalized consulting to create an optimal strategy that considers all of a firm’s stakeholders.
Kochis and DeVoe are also planning a summit on advisor mergers, acquisitions and succession planning in coordination with this year’s Market Counsel summit.