Once you walk out the door for the last time – after, of course, knocking out the lights – as a financial advisor, you know your job isn’t really done.

After all, succession planning is a mucho factor to ensure your brand, not to mention your clients, continue to thrive, according to figmarketing.com.

Along those lines, a few important questions to mull toward laying a foundation:

What valuation do you attach to your firm?

An ongoing revenue stream or lump sum payment. Which floats your boat?

Do you envision partnering with your successor to train and guide them, or do you prefer an outright sale?

When it comes to your firm, any heirs whom might be interested in it?

Of course, your departure is among a gaggle of them looking your profession in the rearview mirror. In the next five years, according to a study by Schwab of RIAs and recruitment, 70,000 new advisors will be needed in the financial planning industry – just to keep pace with the burgeoning number of those in the market for input in areas like the purchase of a home and retirement, reported financial-planning.com.

And, hey, the additional planners needed to replace those who retire or leave for other industries aren’t even accounted for in the study.