Succession Starts Sooner Than You Think: Lessons From 30 Years in the Industry with Duncan MacPherson

Update: 2025-08-26

Description

What’s REALLY holding advisors back from tackling their own succession plan?

Duncan MacPherson joins Tyson Ray and Kim Cochenour to unpack the mindset, systems, and blind spots that keep even the most well-intentioned professionals from preparing for the future.

You’ll walk away with insights on turning wisdom into value and making your business less dependent on you.

Guest Duncan MacPherson, CEO of Pareto Systems, kicks things off by sharing his 30+ year journey that includes some marketing that involved… Winston Churchill!
Duncan sheds some light on what he sees as the bigger picture of the landscape of retiring advisors.
Duncan, Kim, and Tyson go through the four progressions of what it means to be a financial professional.
Tyson asks Duncan to share his thoughts on the recent past and future of succession – with 30% of financial advisors exiting the business.
Duncan explains why, in his opinion, well-intentioned, high moral compass advisors kick the can down the road when it comes to their business succession…
Did you know that half of the population in America doesn’t have an estate plan?
Kim stresses how one of the main reasons why advisors don’t bring their succession planning to clients is because they haven’t thought it through themselves.
Duncan touches upon the qualities of advisors who “got it right” and discusses the fact that “the less dependent your business is on you, the more valuable it becomes”.
Duncan sees taking what’s in your head and turning it into intellectual property as key.
You probably know S.O.P. as Standard Operating Procedures, but for Duncan S.O.P. stands for Standardized, Optimized, Professionalized.
Duncan goes over a Chat GPT prompt every financial advisor should at least look into.
Remember all the conversations should focus on addressing the question “How does the client benefit?”
Citing Hemingway, Duncan says that “The goal is not to be superior to someone else, it’s to be superior to your former self.”