Many advisors are pushing up their retirement dates and some are doing so without a succession plan in place, according to data compiled by Ameriprise Financial.

Thirty percent of nearly 300 advisors surveyed recently by Ameriprise said they plan to accelerate their retirement plans, Manish Dave, senior vice president of business development and experienced advisor recruiting at Ameriprise, said in an interview.

The change in plans has been prompted by the complexities introduced into the financial industry by the current volatility and inflation challenges after years of clear sailing, Dave said. The imminent withdrawal from the industry of advisors, from what is already an aging demographic, brings up several other problems, he added.

“Advisors have been in a nice market environment for years. Now, coming out of now Covid with inflation at the highest it has been in 40 years and volatility rocking the market, some advisors are choosing to simplify their lives” and get out of the business, Dave said. “It is like flying a plane on auto pilot and coming into a lot of chop and turbulence.”

But one of the other problems brought front and center is that at least one quarter of the advisors polled by Ameriprise who were within 10 years of retirement age do not have a succession plan. One solution to that is to partner with an organization like Ameriprise to guarantee clients continue to be served, Dave said.

“Sometimes advisors are the worst at taking their own advice. They spend their lives helping others plan but forget to plan for themselves,” he said.

It would be a shame for any firms to just fade away, leaving clients without resources when an advisor retires, Dave said. “Clients who see this coming are asking their advisors what is going to happen to them or they may just be leaving the firm ahead of time,” he added. “The last thing advisors want is to see their years of work evaporate.”

Because of the need for more advisors, especially in troubling financial times when clients need more, not less, help, the financial industry needs to reach out to young, potential advisors and show them the career is not all numbers and spread sheets, he said. There is a lot of psychology and human connection involved, Dave said. Ameriprise brings 300 to 400 new people into the industry each year.

The advisors who remain also need to make full use of technology, so they can serve more clients more efficiently, he said.

The turbulent times also are prompting other changes. Forty-two percent of advisors are shifting clients to more conservative investments, and 29% have clients who are delaying buying a house, according to the survey.

Despite these negative forces, 72% of advisors said they are at least somewhat confident in the overall stability of the global economy. The sentiment may seem contradictory, but Dave noted that temporary changes can be made to offset immediate negative forces, while still believing that the economy in general will rebound.

Slightly more than half of the advisors surveyed said that they have increased proactive communication with clients.