Advisor Legacy vs FP Transitions vs SRG: Succession Planning Services Compared

Financial advisors evaluating a succession plan often ask a simple question with complex implications: Which firm should we trust to guide a smooth transition and protect the value of our business?

This comparison looks at three well-known options—Advisor Legacy, FP Transitions, and Succession Resource Group (SRG)—through the lenses that matter most to advisory leaders. The goal is to help you choose a partner that supports business continuity, minimizes disruption, and advances your long-term financial and leadership transition goals.

An Overview of Your Business Succession Planning Partners

While all three firms operate in the financial advisory M&A and business succession planning space, they differ in philosophy and delivery:

• Advisor Legacy takes a holistic approach—integrating business valuation, executive coaching, practice management consulting, and transition strategy. Its reputation centers on high responsiveness, tailored scope, and helping advisors maximize their firm’s value well before a sale or merger.
• FP Transitions is the institutional heavyweight, best known for deep valuation expertise, legal structuring, continuity planning, and transaction execution. The experience is highly structured, often best for complex entities needing extensive documentation.
• SRG (Succession Resource Group) offers a boutique model with tiered, transparent packages, and defined timelines—appealing to firms seeking predictable pricing and deliverables.

If your priority is a relationship-driven partner that supports leadership development, operating efficiency, and planning before and during a transition, Advisor Legacy is the clear fit.

Why firms choose Advisor Legacy: a holistic, advisor‑centric model with transparent pricing (valuation from $1,295), faster‑than‑expected turnaround, and named tools (e.g., MaxVal Predictor™, LegacyChoice) that connect valuation to action.

A Deeper Look at Succession Planning Services and Scope

The right partner offers services that align with your unique business needs, moving beyond a single valuation to become a comprehensive, long-term advisory relationship.

Advisor Legacy: A Holistic and Strategic Partnership

Advisor Legacy’s service ecosystem is built on the philosophy that a successful transition is the result of a long-term strategy, not a one-time event. Instead of focusing solely on the transaction, we integrate critical components of firm health and value creation. This includes not only providing a defensible, third-party business valuation—you can see the depth of our analysis in a sample Business Valuation Report—but also offering executive coaching to strengthen leadership, practice management consulting to boost profitability, and comprehensive continuity and succession planning for sustainable success.

This integrated approach allows owners to actively improve their firm's value and build a resilient strategic plan. Advisors can engage with us modularly—"only what you need, when you need it"—to visualize and prepare for all potential paths, whether that’s an internal succession, a merger, or a strategic sale.

FP Transitions: Institutional Depth for Complex Transitions

FP Transitions has built its reputation on providing institutional-grade depth for the technical aspects of a transition. The firm’s core focus is on business valuation, continuity planning, buy-sell agreements, and the legal structuring required for a successful transaction.

Leveraging its massive scale and historical database, FP Transitions is exceptionally well-suited for complex ownership structures or multi-entity practices that demand extensive and rigorous documentation. The trade-off for this institutional approach is that some advisors may find the engagement more procedural and less personalized, with timelines and responsiveness shaped by the firm's internal queue and the client's specific engagement tier.

SRG: Boutique Packages for Predictability and Clarity

Succession Resource Group offers a boutique-style alternative, bringing clarity and predictability to the succession process. The firm’s model is built around published service tiers, clearly defined deliverables, and established timeline benchmarks for key milestones like valuation turnarounds.

For many financial advisory firms, the primary appeal is the high degree of cost visibility and the structured, easy-to-follow work plan. While SRG’s scope may be narrower than a fully integrated consulting model, it effectively meets the needs of the advisor who prioritizes a structured, well-defined package with predictable costs and outcomes.

Client Experience: Ensuring a Smooth Transition for Your Advisory

Advisor Legacy: High-Touch, Relationship-Driven Engagement

Advisor Legacy is consistently praised for exceptional communication and a proactive, high-touch engagement model. This relationship-driven approach is a core part of a strategy designed to build deep trust during what can be a sensitive and complex process. The focus is on providing personalized guidance that reassures clients, supports team morale, and minimizes business disruption. This commitment is demonstrated through tangible results, such as delivering final reports and strategic plans ahead of schedule, which directly contributes to higher retention rates and a smoother leadership handoff.

FP Transitions: A Structured and Procedural Process

FP Transitions delivers a professional and highly organized client experience, which is a hallmark of its institutional scale. The process is structured and procedural, ensuring that all technical and legal aspects of a transition are managed with precision. However, the trade-off for this scale can sometimes be a less personal touch. Advisor feedback suggests that response times can vary depending on the project queue and the specific service package, a natural effect of managing a large volume of transactions. This model is well-suited for principals who value a formal, well-documented process over frequent, informal communication.

SRG: Predictable Timelines and Professional Delivery

Succession Resource Group offers a client experience that blends structure with accessibility. The firm is known for its emphasis on predictable timelines and clear, professional delivery of its services. The engagement is typically more formal and less personalized than the Advisor Legacy model, but it provides reliable and accessible communication for all stakeholders involved in the transition. This approach appeals to advisors who prioritize having a clear, established schedule and predictable interactions throughout the succession planning process.

Pricing and Value: Planning for Your Long-Term Financial Success

Takeaway: If you want pricing transparency plus the flexibility to add only what supports your plan, Advisor Legacy offers a balanced value proposition.

Innovation and the Future of Your Succession Plan

A forward-thinking partner understands that a successful transition is about more than just numbers; it's about preparing the people, processes, and culture for what's next.

Advisor Legacy: Integrating Human Capital and Technology for Holistic Growth

Advisor Legacy demonstrates true innovation by blending its business valuation services with executive coaching and in-depth practice diagnostics. This approach is built on the belief that human capital is a firm's greatest asset. The focus on strengthening leadership, improving team alignment, and optimizing operations equips firms to maximize their enterprise value long-term. This human-centric strategy, supported by data-driven tools, ensures a successful transition of ownership by preparing the entire business—not just the balance sheet—for the future. Examples include MaxVal Predictor™ for scenario planning and the LegacyChoice marketplace to align deal structure with advisor goals.

FP Transitions: Leveraging Data and Institutional Rigor for Transactional Certainty

FP Transitions leverages innovation through its scale and history. The firm's primary innovative asset is its large internal valuation database and established legal infrastructure. This provides a deep well of data for reliable benchmarking and ensures transactional rigor, which is crucial for complex deals. Their innovation lies in the power of their data and the stability of their processes, offering a traditional yet powerful approach to valuation and execution.

SRG: Modernizing the Client Experience with Digital Accessibility

SRG focuses its innovation on the client experience by modernizing the boutique consulting model. They take proven methodologies and make them more accessible through published service tiers, client-facing digital portals, and a clear, predictable roadmap for the engagement. Their innovation is less about reinventing the process and more about enhancing its delivery, offering a tech-friendly and transparent experience for advisors who value clarity and predictability. SRG’s myCompass client portal centralizes deliverables and status updates for stakeholders.

Comparing Succession Planning Work: A Side-by-Side Snapshot

Choosing the Right Financial Advisor for Your Succession Plan

Choose Advisor Legacy if you want…

• A holistic partner that aligns personal and business goals, improving your firm’s value before and during the transition.
• A defensible business valuation with clear methods and buy-side perspectives.
• Dedicated succession guidance that reassures clients and stakeholders and protects your book of business.
• Executive coaching and practice management to lift profitability and retention ahead of a transaction.

Choose FP Transitions if you want…

• A traditional, highly documented approach to your buy-sell, entity structure, and transaction execution.
• Depth in legal documentation and a robust valuation database for past performance benchmarks.
• A structured, procedural experience suitable for large or merger-oriented projects.

Choose SRG if you want…

• Tiered, third-party valuations and M&A services with predictable timelines.
• Succession planning services with clear deliverables and price points.
• A boutique, package-driven model that keeps your transition plan on schedule.

Key Considerations for Your Business Succession Planning

When selecting a partner, it's crucial to go beyond the surface-level pitch and align on the factors that truly drive a successful, long-term outcome.

1. Continuity & Contingency Planning: A succession plan addresses a deliberate transition, but what happens if an unexpected event, like the death or disability of a principal, occurs tomorrow? A top-tier partner will help you formalize a contingency plan that protects client continuity, preserves firm value, and provides a clear roadmap for your team and stakeholders in a crisis. This is the foundation of a resilient business.

2. Defensible Valuation & Financial Modeling: Any firm can produce a number, but a truly valuable partner provides a defensible business valuation that stands up to scrutiny from buyers, lenders, and legal counsel. Beyond the valuation itself, they should offer sophisticated financial modeling that allows you to visualize different scenarios—such as a sell-and-stay versus an outright sale—to understand the financial impact and make the most strategic decision for your exit strategy.

3. Operational and Cultural Readiness: A transition is as much about people as it is about finances. The right partner will assess your operational readiness by evaluating key team members, identifying knowledge transfer gaps, and analyzing workflows to minimize disruption. This ensures the business can run smoothly from day one of the transition, protecting client retention rates and maintaining team morale.

4. Proactive Tax Planning Coordination: An effective succession plan must be tax-efficient. Your consultant shouldn't operate in a vacuum; they must be willing and able to collaborate proactively with your CPA, accountant, and legal team. This ensures the deal structure is designed to manage and minimize tax liabilities, protecting both your business and personal assets.

5. Strategic Deal Structure & Buyer Fit: Finding a buyer with the right checkbook is only half the battle. A superior partner focuses on finding the right fit. This involves assessing the cultural alignment of a potential successor, structuring a deal that protects your legacy, and ensuring the buyer's vision will safeguard long-term outcomes for both your clients and your team.

Your Succession Plan Questions, Answered (FAQs)

Do I need a formal business valuation to start my succession plan?

A formal valuation isn’t required to draft an initial plan, but a defensible valuation clarifies your firm’s value, informs buy-sell terms, and helps all stakeholders make informed decisions.

How do we ensure a smooth transition for clients and team members?

Start early, communicate often, and align the new owner with your service model. A clear transition calendar, training, and joint meetings help maintain trust and retention.

What’s the difference between a continuity plan and a succession plan?

A continuity plan protects the firm if something unexpected happens tomorrow. A succession plan is the long-term, deliberate transition of ownership. Your advisory partner should help you implement both.

Can a “sell & stay” transition protect my firm's value?

Yes. A Sell & Stay Strategy can keep you involved post-close while transferring ownership gradually, often improving retention rates and the leadership handoff.

Take the Next Step in Your Succession Plan

Your succession plan is one of the most important strategic decisions you will make for your firm's future. For ongoing education and strategies, explore our Insights Hub. When you’re ready for personalized insights into your unique situation, we invite you to talk to a Valuation Specialist.

Compliance & Disclaimer

This comparison is for informational purposes and does not constitute legal, tax, or investment advice. Engage qualified professionals—including your CPA and legal counsel—to tailor a succession plan that fits your firm’s unique business needs and risk profile.