How the Best Managing Partners Turn Ideas into Reality

Man and woman in meeting across deskApproaches can differ dramatically from one partner to another.

By Bill Reeb and Dominic Cingoranelli

How can the managing partner operationalize the strategy within the policies, process and budget set forth by the partner group?

MORE ON PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT: Accountability Includes Partners | Accountability Requires Clear Expectations | Base Retirement on Today’s Operations | How Involved Should Retired Owners Be? | How to Find a Partner’s Replacement | Best Practices for Mandatory Retirement | 7 Succession Questions to Ignore for Now

To keep this simple, because it can get very complex extremely fast, let’s say that the firm has three strategies the partner group has mandated:
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13 Steps in Succession Planning

3 businessmen looking down at a giant red jigsaw puzzle piecePlus 20 questions for introducing the topic at a retreat.

By Marc Rosenberg
CPA Firm Retreats

The best succession planning takes a step-by-step approach.

MORE ON RETREATS: Staff Likes and Dislikes about the Accounting Profession | 20 Questions to Benchmark Profitability | 27 Tough Questions Every Firm Needs to Address | 10 Benchmarking Missteps | 18 Essential Management Questions to Cover at a Retreat | 30 Marketing and Growth Questions to Cover at a Retreat | Thinking of Merging? Discuss It At a Retreat | Leave Your Retreat With a To Do List | Who Should Participate in a Retreat? | Retreat Logistics: How Long, What Kind? | Why Do CPA Firms Conduct Retreats?

1. Strategic planning: What do we want the firm to look like in 5-10 years?
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5 Reasons CPA Firms Are Bad at Succession Planning

Older businessman with younger businessman trailing behind himPlus 6 aspects of a good succession plan.

By Marc Rosenberg
CPA Firm Retreats

What is succession planning?

Most of us think of succession planning as a process for identifying and devel­oping people with the potential to fill key leadership positions.

MORE ON RETREATS: 25 Ways to Turn Good Firms into Great Firms | Partner Buyout 101 | 27 Tough Questions Every Firm Needs to Address | Make More Money | 10 Benchmarking Missteps | How to Address Partner Compensation at a Retreat | How Marketing for CPA Firms Is Different | Why Create a Marketing Plan? | Thinking of Merging? Discuss It At a Retreat | How to Take Action After a Retreat | Every Retreat Needs a Leader, But Who? | Retreats Are No Place for Clowns | What Should CPA Firms Discuss at Retreats? | Why Do CPA Firms Conduct Retreats?

There is no question that leadership development is the most important part of succession planning. But at CPA firms, much more is necessary. A successful succession plan requires:
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Accountability Includes Partners

Manager dangling carrots in front of staffDeliver not only rewards but sanctions.

By Bill Reeb and Dominic Cingoranelli
CPA Trendlines / Succession Institute

Let’s take a close look at what accountability might look like.

MORE on PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT for PRO Members: Accountability Requires Clear Expectations | Accountability Is for Everyone | Who Decides What? | Firms Say What Would Change Retirement Pay | Action Plans for Transitioning Partners | How Retirement Issues Affect Succession Planning | How Partner Ratings Factor Into Equity | CPA Firm Performance Assessments: 15 Core Competencies, 21 Questions

For partners, accountability is best described as having a system in place that rewards partners for
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13 Succession Plan Requirements

Time to retire clock faceMake sure you’re not growing your own competition.

By Bill Reeb and Dominic Cingoranelli
CPA Trendlines / Succession Institute

There are various sections that should be included in any succession plan. We are not going to present you with a sample succession plan, but even better, to describe topic areas you should address in your plan.

MORE ON PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT: Base Retirement on Today’s Operations | Who Decides What? | How Involved Should Retired Owners Be? | How to Find a Partner’s Replacement | Best Practices for Mandatory Retirement | 7 Succession Questions to Ignore for Now | The Pitfalls of Equity Allocation and Reallocation

As always, there are various best practices to consider as you put your plan together. For any succession plan to work, you have to start with consideration of the business model you use:
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Who Decides What?

Businessman looking thoughtfulYou need to ponder some questions before you answer.

By Bill Reeb and Dominic Cingoranelli
CPA Trendlines / Succession Institute

Everywhere you turn, you overhear someone talking about, being asked about the status of, or referring to their need to develop, a succession plan.

MORE ON PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT: How Retired Partners Are Robbing their Own Firms | How Involved Should Retired Owners Be? | How to Find a Partner’s Replacement | Action Plans for Transitioning Partners | How Retirement Issues Affect Succession Planning | Succession: The Questions to Care About | 7 Succession Questions to Ignore for Now | CPA Firm Performance Assessments: 15 Core Competencies, 21 Questions

As a matter of fact, for the past 12 years through surveys with the AICPA, we have been asking firms to share with us whether or not they have a succession plan in place.

When you consider the responses to this question from the PCPS Succession Institute Succession Management surveys conducted in 2008 and 2012, clearly more and more firms are:

  • getting their act together,
  • documenting their succession management strategy and
  • thinking through the ramifications of retiring one or more senior owners.

Here is the question we asked along with summary data from both surveys: READ MORE →

27 Tough Questions Every Firm Needs to Address

Eyeglasses resting on document labeled "retirement plan"On succession, retirement, valuation, sale or acquisition.

By Marc Rosenberg
CPA Firm Retreats

Before formally beginning the discussion part of a retreat session, it’s always a good idea to begin by asking the participants what they want to cover.

MORE ON RETREATS: Make More Money | System vs. System: Partner Compensation Best Practices | 10 Benchmarking Missteps | 18 Essential Management Questions to Cover at a Retreat | Management Styles: Partnership vs. Corporate | Why Create a Marketing Plan?

As issues are suggested, the facilitator should write them down on a flipchart.

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How Retired Partners Are Robbing their Own Firms

Masked man carrying large money bagIf you don’t set policies and enforce retirement deals, your firm could become a financial hostage.

By Bill Reeb and Dominic Cingoranelli

As many as 30 percent of firms pay more to retiring partners than they initially agreed, according to our succession survey.

MORE ON PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT for PRO MEMBERS: How Involved Should Retired Owners Be? | Firms Say What Would Change Retirement Pay | Action Plans for Transitioning Partners | How Retirement Issues Affect Succession Planning | How Partner Ratings Factor Into Equity | Develop Your Employees or Suffer the Consequences | What Having Your Employees’ Backs Means | Do CPA Firms Need Management or Leadership? |  Job 1 for The Practice Owner: Client Management

Here’s why.

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