The Unspoken Risk in Succession

The Silver Tsunami of retirements is rapidly approaching the insurance industry, and it’s a risk your firm can’t afford to soft pedal.

This generational transition is especially crucial for brokerages, because poorly handled transitions directly disrupt client relationships, revenue streams, and ultimately, the firm’s market value.

We’re not just talking executive transitions, either. It’s producers and other crucial leaders throughout the organization, really anyone whose departure could shake the business. In these times, your bench is one of your greatest assets.

Brokerage firms often prioritize valuations, perpetuation plans, legal documents, and equity structures but frequently overlook the human side of succession. Ignoring this becomes the most dangerous omission in the entire process.

Here’s the bottom line: most internal successions fail—regardless of role—because the business stalls when the next person up can’t build trust, influence outcomes, or maintain critical relationships.

When that happens, the ripple effects shake the whole firm, impacting client retention, team morale, producer performance, culture, and continuity.

Why You Should Care

If you’re in a key seat at a brokerage firm, you’re already considering the future. Maybe you plan to retire in a few years. Perhaps you anticipate that a big player is nearing the exit ramp. Or a top producer or two hint at moving on to their retirement gig.

Ask yourself:

• Who’s stepping into that role?
• Are they ready to handle major accounts, complex claims, and organizational responsibility?
• Do they command team respect?
• Do they want it—and do they understand what “it” entails?

If they can’t earn influence and build trust, the results for that role could suffer.

In my work with rising leaders and firms preparing for generational transitions, I see this frequently: firms don’t lose momentum due to an incomplete financial or operational plan; they lose momentum because the next leader doesn’t inspire confidence.

That’s a leadership issue. A relationship issue. A succession issue. And, yes, it’s your issue.

The Internal Blind Spot

We saw exactly this situation with a company in our orbit.

A top producer spent 30 years nurturing the firm’s biggest account—a multimillion-dollar client. Deeply personal relationships, trust, and shared history kept them in lockstep.

Then a health issue sidelined that producer over the long term. Without a clear successor, the firm relied on an operations leader to step into that crucial seat managing not just the biggest client, but a team that covered most of the firm’s top 20 customers.

Six months in: flat growth, frustrated clients, disengaged team members. The whisper: “They’re just not able to do the job.”

Why? Because they weren’t prepared. The replacement executed tasks effectively, but no one trained them to carry the weight of the firm’s critical relationships.

You can’t fix that with a nine-box perpetuation plan. Address it directly, or your firm risks stumbling after the transition.

What You Can Do

You don’t need to overhaul your org chart overnight, but you must view and plan for succession as a leadership and continuity challenge. Here’s how:

1. Ask Hard Questions Internally

Move beyond “We have a perpetuation plan” and start asking:

• If our top producer or partner left tomorrow, who could manage our most critical relationships?
• Have emerging leaders led client strategy or taken responsibility for major accounts?
• Do we know if our high-potentials want to lead—and what kind of leader they’d be?

These questions reveal reality, not assumptions.

2. Individual Results Don’t Equal Relationship Readiness

Successors who never owned key relationships can be a red flag for transitions. They managed, supported, and executed—but weren’t the go-to person for working with clients. Now they’re expected to step into decision-making or leadership?

If the new managing partner can’t earn trust, coach teams through uncertainty, or represent the firm under pressure, your succession plan risks failure.

Build your bench now. Give potential successors responsibility to influence outcomes and take accountability for the roles they may undertake. Even better, provide development and coaching that can prepare them for that upward trajectory.

3. Don’t Wait for a Crisis

Most succession moments feel theoretical—until they suddenly aren’t. Retirement announcements, health issues, or unexpected departures trigger panic.

Firms that thrive through transitions approach succession as an ongoing leadership development process long before any transition occurs.

Successors’ learning should start years, not months, before the transition. They should be shadowing key meetings, leading strategy sessions, and engaging in client discussions. You don’t have the flexibility to rely on random learning experiences to prepare these key members of your team.

4. Redefine Readiness

Readiness to lead centers on influence:

• Can they lead the room?
• Can they handle tough conversations?
• Can they sustain and expand critical relationships (internal and external)?
• Can they grow the business with new relationships?

Weaknesses here won’t just hurt morale. They threaten future growth and opportunities for exit.

Acknowledging Loss in Succession

Succession means loss. Whether stepping away from your life’s work, transitioning major client relationships, or merging cultures after an acquisition, loss always accompanies change. Grief, frequently unspoken and overlooked, becomes the hidden force capable of derailing entire transitions.

In generational successions, leaders often prioritize visible integration—processes, systems, and financials—while ignoring invisible elements like culture and leadership. Ignore grief—the loss of identity, control, culture, or legacy—and it sabotages the transition. Talented people leave, clients walk, and cultures fracture.

Acknowledging grief isn’t weakness—it’s strategic leadership. Recognizing grief as a barrier creates clarity, empowering your firm to move forward purposefully, not reactively.

A practical first step: Openly name these losses within your leadership team. Shift these conversations from private discussions to collective dialogue. Transparency reduces uncertainty, normalizes grief, and prepares your people emotionally.

Take action to prepare your team. Your firm needs clear-eyed, emotionally intelligent leadership now—leaders ready to guide people through change. The good news? Preparing your leaders for these moments is tough, but you don’t have to tackle it alone.