"Don't just sit there and coast along thinking your financial prowess is going to win the day." Host Laurie Barkman sits down with Susan Latremoille, Founder of Next Chapter Lifestyle Advisors, and discusses the retirement myth and the conversation that the advisors are missing. Susan spent nearly four decades in financial services watching well-prepared clients fall apart emotionally after selling their businesses — and watching their assets walk out the door with them. After losing a $100 million client post-transaction to the bank that handled the deal, Susan pivoted her entire career to answer the question the financial services industry had been avoiding: what happens to your client — and your relationship — after the money lands? Laurie and Susan unpack the ugly myth of retirement, the factors affecting exit regrets, and exactly how financial advisors can turn this gap into their greatest differentiator.
Key Insights
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The Hollywood version of retirement is a myth — and your clients believe it. The idea that selling the business means sailing off into unlimited golf, travel, and happiness is exactly the opposite of what many business owners actually experience. The sooner advisors challenge this narrative, the better positioned they are to serve their clients.
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75% of business owners regret exiting within the first year. This figure has been consistent across surveys since 2013. It points directly to a planning gap that advisors are uniquely positioned to fill — if they're willing to have the harder conversation.
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The conversation about identity and purpose is not "soft" — it's the most critical planning work an advisor can do. When a founder exits, they don't just lose a company — they lose their social circle, their daily structure, their title, and their reason to get up in the morning. Laurie and Susan emphasize that advisors should stop dismissing this as someone else's job and start treating it as a core part of the transition conversation.
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Silence on the personal side has real, measurable consequences. The aftermath of an unplanned exit can show up as depression, broken marriages, health decline, and worse. This key message to advisors is clear: you are in the room, you have the relationship, and you have the responsibility to ask the harder questions — not just review the portfolio. The higher the achiever sitting across from you, the more they need someone to have that conversation with them.
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A $100 million wake-up call: the relationship ends at the transaction if you're not in the room. Susan lost her biggest client the day he sold his company because she had no role beyond managing his retirement money. Advisors who aren't engaged in the personal planning conversation have no seat at the table — and no leverage to retain assets after a liquidity event.
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Up to 80% of business owners change financial advisors within one year of a liquidity event. The advisors who survive that window are the ones who went beyond portfolio management and helped their clients build a life plan that outlasted the deal. This is the next frontier for advisor differentiation — and AI is accelerating the timeline.
Chapters:
00:00 - Introduction of Susan Latremoille
01:40 - The Retirement Myth
02:21 - Bucket List vs. A Real Plan
03:00 - The Ugly Truth About Retirement
06:25 - Personal Planning to Avoid Exit Regrets
07:31 - The Four Core Losses After Exit
12:41 - The Five Consequences of an Unplanned Exit
15:29 - Personal Transition Process and Coping with Exit Regrets
20:09 - The Financial Implications of Exit Regret
20:46 - When Should These Conversations Start?
23:24 - The $100M Lesson: What Susan Lost and Why
25:51 - How Financial Advisors Can Stay in the Relationship
26:28 - Why Early and Consistent Transition Conversations Matter
27:31 - The Financial Advisor's Role Is Shifting
Is your business truly ready—and are you?
Take the Succession Readiness Assessment to get a clear snapshot of where you stand and what to focus on next.
https://btsherpa.com/succession
P.S. Most owners don't realize where they stand until they're already in a transition. Take a few minutes now to understand your readiness—and give yourself more options later.
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