Question 1

What does the Succession Continuity Tripwire actually grade?

Accepted Answer

It grades whether your advisory firm — and its client relationships — would survive the principal's exit, whether that exit is a planned retirement or a sudden absence. You mark six continuity dimensions 0/1/2 on evidence: a written succession plan, a named-and-ready successor, a binding continuity/contingency agreement, client-relationship transferability, funding and valuation, and operational readiness. The scorecard returns SECURE, EXPOSED, or NO SUCCESSION per firm. It grades a firm's continuity posture, never people, and drafts no documents. It is not legal, financial, or investment advice.

Question 2

Why can a firm score 62 and still read NO SUCCESSION?

Accepted Answer

Because two of the six dimensions form a tripwire, and when both are zero they override the score. The tripwire is a named-ready successor and a continuity agreement: if the firm has neither — no one positioned to take over AND no agreement to force or fund a transition — the clients have nowhere to go the moment the principal is gone, no matter how strong the plan, clients, funding, or operations look on paper. The worked Rivera example scores 62 on its other strengths and still reads NO SUCCESSION for exactly this reason. It's the honest verdict: a polished practice with no exit path is not secure.

Question 3

How is the tripwire different from just a low score?

Accepted Answer

A low score means the firm is broadly underprepared across dimensions. The tripwire is narrower and sharper: it fires only on one specific, catastrophic intersection — no successor AND no agreement — because that's the precise condition where continuity fails completely regardless of everything else. And it refuses to cry wolf: a firm with a ready successor but loose paperwork is EXPOSED, not fatal; a firm with a binding agreement but no groomed successor has a bridge. Only the intersection of both zeros trips the wire, and it releases the instant either half clears — so the scorecard always points to the cheapest move that changes the verdict: name a successor, or sign an agreement.

Question 4

How is this different from the Key-Person Risk Audit?

Accepted Answer

They sit at different grains. The Key-Person Risk Audit asks whether the business survives losing a key employee — a bus-factor question about any load-bearing person. This scorecard is about the principal's succession specifically: the planned or sudden exit of the owner, and whether the firm and its client book transition intact. One is 'could we survive if this person vanished for a week'; the other is 'is there a real plan for what happens to the practice and the clients when the principal leaves for good.' They're complementary — a firm can be resilient to a key employee's departure and still have no succession path for its founder.

Question 5

What's in the download?

Accepted Answer

A workbook and a runnable engine that produce the same verdict. The .xlsx has three tabs — Start Here, Dashboard (portfolio verdict, counts, and the dimension to fix first, with a fixed evaluation date), and Continuity Scorecard (a row per firm or practice with live weighted scoring and the tripwire). Two playbooks cover marking the six dimensions honestly and building continuity in order — clearing the tripwire first, by either naming a successor or signing a continuity agreement, then closing the rest. A zero-dependency Python engine grades a firms file from the command line and outputs the same verdict. Everything is deterministic and offline — it opens in Excel, Google Sheets, or Numbers and connects to nothing.

Question 6

Is this legal or financial advice, or a succession plan?

Accepted Answer

No. It's a diagnostic that grades your continuity posture from your own marks — it drafts no succession plan, buy-sell, or continuity agreement, values nothing, connects to nothing, and scores no person. RIAs are expected to maintain business-continuity and succession arrangements, and the specifics depend on your registration and situation; the continuity-agreement dimension asks whether you have one in place, not what it should say. Confirm your arrangements — and have the actual documents drafted — with your CCO and a qualified attorney. Not legal, financial, or investment advice.

If you're gone tomorrow,where do your clients go?

An advisory firm is one event away from chaos — and most have never written down the plan.

The practice that is the principal

The plan that was 'meant to get done'

The score that hides the cliff

Mark six dimensions per firm. The tripwire catches the cliff a score would hide.

The same verdict from the command line.

Six weighted dimensions — and one tripwire that can override the score.

Written succession plan

Named & ready successor

Continuity agreement

Client transferability

Funding & valuation

Operational readiness

A way to find the cliff before your clients do. Not a succession plan, and not legal advice.

What it is

What it isn't

Anyone whose clients would be stranded if they stepped away.

Solo & founder-led RIAs

Multi-advisor firms

Firms near a transition

Acquirers & COIs

The principal's exit here; the key-employee and sale angles next door.

The Key-Person Risk Audit

The Acquisition-Offer Survival Audit

The Co-Founder Equity Health Check

Before you buy.

Find the cliff first.
While you still can.