When financial advisers start thinking about stepping back, the conversation is usually framed around the “big exit.”
Consolidators, phased buyouts, successors — the market is full of templates for selling up.
But what if you could cash in your business without cashing out on the relationships that matter most?
What if you could have your big cheque now and still keep doing the work you love, in a way that’s simpler, freer, and built entirely on your terms?
Welcome to Option 5 — the friendly Financial Life Coach model.
What are the options?
Here’s the list of Options 1–4 from FT Adviser today:
- A Traditional Consolidator
- Sell your business outright to a consolidator.
- Provides capital, structure, and a clear exit path.
- Works well for some, but others worry about client relationships being reduced to a call centre and portfolio rebalancing.
- Tailoring the Deal with a Consolidator
- Negotiate terms that allow you to stay involved for a period.
- Can include a gradual handover, retaining key staff, or agreeing on specific client transition steps.
- Often means a smaller upfront cheque but better client continuity.
- Successors, Not Acquirers
- Bring in a younger adviser and hand over the business gradually.
- Phased buyout over several years, with the seller staying on part-time.
- Builds client trust naturally while mentoring the next generation.
- Someone You Already Know
- Sell to a familiar local adviser, colleague, or respected competitor.
- Often starts with informal conversations.
- May not be the most lucrative financially, but often feels the most natural and values-aligned.
Option five: retire from regulation, not from relationships
For some advisers, the thought of walking away entirely — even after a good sale — just doesn’t sit right. You’ve spent decades building trust and seeing clients through life’s biggest moments. It feels strange to hand over the keys and never look back.
There’s another way. One that gives you the big cheque now, while keeping you in the picture — on your terms.
Sell your regulated advice business to the right buyer, then step outside the product sales perimeter to set up as a Financial Life Coach. You’re no longer bound by FCA regulation, but you’re still able to offer life-changing guidance.
Work part-time, as and when you want. Charge by the hour or on a simple retainer. Help your past clients with the planning and decision-making they value most — without the compliance treadmill.
When you decide to fully retire, you can sell your coaching practice too, creating a second payout and a final chapter that’s as considered as the rest of your career.
For many advisers, this model preserves the legacy they’ve built, gives clients the continuity they deserve, and offers a gentle glide path into retirement — free from the cliff-edge “all or nothing” thinking that dominates the industry.
How Option 5 Works
- Sell your regulated advice business – Take the big upfront payment from a buyer who values your client bank and goodwill.
- Step outside the product sales perimeter – Retire from the FCA’s regulated arena and the compliance treadmill.
- Keep serving clients as a Financial Life Coach – Paid hourly or on a retainer, purely for planning and guidance.
- Work as and when you choose – No annual targets, no shareholder pressure. Just meaningful client work.
- Enjoy a second exit payday – When you decide to stop completely, sell your coaching practice too.
Why Advisers Love Option 5
- Preserve Your Legacy – You’ve built decades of trust. This model lets you keep supporting clients without the risk of them being lost in a call centre system.
- Stay in the Game – Many advisers don’t want to go cold turkey. Coaching offers a flexible, part-time bridge into retirement.
- Free from Product Sales – No tied panels, no commission bias, no pressure to “move money around.”
- Lower Overheads, Higher Freedom – Without regulation costs, you can work lean, set your own rates, and focus on value, not volume.
- Double the Financial Benefit – Cash out once when you sell the business, then again when you finally hang up your boots.
A Win for You, a Win for Clients
Your clients get:
- Continuity from the person they trust most.
- A fee-only, product-free service with no hidden agenda.
- Holistic financial life planning that puts their goals first.
You get:
- A more relaxed working rhythm.
- Freedom from compliance burdens.
- A new chapter that keeps your professional identity alive — on your terms.
Why This Isn’t the Industry’s Default Path
The big consolidator narrative dominates because it’s easy to package and sell.
But for values-led advisers, that route can feel too final — and too impersonal.
Option 5 changes the conversation. It says you can have:
- Financial security from your exit deal.
- Continued purpose through selective client work.
- A gradual glide path into full retirement.
The Takeaway
If you’ve hit a milestone birthday, started looking at your diary with a different perspective, or simply want to explore a softer landing than “one day in, one day out,” Option 5 could be your perfect plot twist.
Selling up doesn’t have to mean selling out.
It can mean moving into the most rewarding — and freeing — chapter of your career.
What They Didn’t Teach You at Adviser School
Real cashflow planning goes beyond selling products. It starts with life-first strategies that connect a client’s goals, values, and earning potential to their financial plan — building trust, resilience, and freedom.
💡 Discover the difference for just £4.99.
Our GAME Plan Training Taster introduces human capital strategies that adviser school never covered — essential learning for any lifetime cashflow service.
Join the Academy: Your Next Chapter Beyond Regulation
You’ve spent years inside the regulated advice world.
Now it’s time to step beyond product sales — and into a role where your skill, experience, and integrity work entirely for the client, not the commission sheet.
The old model kept clients dependent, in the dark, and paying for product services.
The new era is about clarity, confidence, and conscious choice — for both you and the people you serve.
What You’ll Gain
Empowered Planning
Leave the sales pitch behind. Guide clients with flat-fee, jargon-free advice that gives them full control over their decisions and their destiny.
Purpose-Led Practice
Turn your career capital into a values-driven enterprise. Whether you serve as an educator, a mentor, or a sounding board, you’ll create impact without conflict of interest.
Conscious Leadership
Move beyond the compliance treadmill into the Aquarian age of planning — where financial wisdom meets soul purpose and your work becomes a legacy.
How To Begin
Step into the AoLP Community
→ Aaccess to resources, events, and a peer network redefining the future of planning.
→ Community Link
Book a Discovery Call
→ Explore how to align your practice with purpose — 15 minute free chat with Steve Conley.
→ Booking Page
Try The Taster
→ Take a look at a training module they didn’t teach you at adviser school – just £4.99.
→ 👉 Try the GAME Plan Taster
The future isn’t built on percentage fees.
It’s built on purpose, participation, and personal agency — for clients and for you.
Academy of Life Planning 