Succession Planning for Practice Owners: A Practical Guide
For GPs approaching the later stages of their careers, how you exit can define the financial outcome of decades of work.
Succession planning is one of the least discussed and most important aspects of practice ownership. For GPs approaching the later stages of their careers, the question of how to exit ? and on what terms ? can define the financial outcome of decades of work.
The Traditional Exit
The traditional approach to practice succession has been to find a buyer ? usually a younger GP ? negotiate a price, and transfer ownership. This model is becoming less common as the pool of GPs willing and able to take on the financial risk of practice ownership has shrunk.
Partnership Models as an Exit Strategy
An alternative that we see working well is a staged partnership model: the existing owner sells a majority stake to a partner like Doctors & Co, continues to practice for some period while the transition is managed, and then exits on agreed terms with the security of knowing the practice will continue to be run well.
This approach typically results in a better outcome for the selling clinician, a smoother transition for the practice team, and continuity for patients that a straightforward sale rarely achieves.
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