The disproportionate number of clients requiring service relative to the amount of managed assets they brought to the firm in potential revenue wasn’t the only problem the two partners encountered after acquiring another advisor’s business.

“He was more insurance-focused than we were, another caveat for us,” Porter said. “Although we did insurance, we did indexed annuities, while he was more into investment annuities.”

Technology was yet another hurdle for Porter and Josephson to overcome in absorbing another practice into their own. Since the deceased advisor’s technology was not as advanced as that of Cornerstone, the task of accessing his client files was laborious and time-consuming.

After struggling to service both Cornerstone’s clients and those of their former tenant, Porter and Josephson hired another client-facing advisor, Jon Petersen, to help with the transition.

As difficult as the acquisition was for Cornerstone to consummate, it was no less a burden to the late advisor’s family. Because there was no succession plan in place, the two partners could not afford to pay more for the business than it was worth with the owner gone.

“Without a succession plan, you have to essentially recreate the wheel,” Porter said.

That has long been an issue of concern for Cornerstone’s affiliate, Cetera Financial Group. Headquartered in El Segundo, Calif., Cetera is the nation’s second-largest family of independent broker-dealers.

From early-onset dementia to medical emergencies to motor vehicle accidents and more, advisors have made sudden and unexpected exits from their practices for any number of reasons, but the net result is that a valuable asset can quickly become a liability in the absence of its owner.

Richard Whitworth, head of business consulting for Cetera, has facilitated over 250 advisor practice acquisitions since 2015. In that time, Whitworth said in a news release, Cetera has observed that the value of an advisory practice will decrease by as much as 75 percent within the first 60 days of an unplanned exit if no executable continuity plan is in place.

That dire prospect could soon change.