Most conversations about leaving a practice collapse into a single question: sell or don’t sell.

There are actually five pathways, and they suit very different people. The right one depends less on what your practice is worth than on how much you want to be involved, how quickly you need the money, and how much you care about what happens after you leave.

Here they are, honestly compared.

Option 1 — Outright sale to an external buyer

The cleanest exit. You sell the practice or a parcel of fees to another firm, take the proceeds, and transition out over an agreed period.

Timeframe: Up to six months to prepare and market, then six to twelve months of transition. Some sources put full completion at one to three years from contract (BOQ Specialist).

What you’d realise: Australian practices generally trade between 0.8 and 1.4 times gross recurring fees, with metro averages recently around 113 cents in the dollar (Accounting Times). Larger firms are priced on earnings instead, typically 3.5 to 5 times EBIT.

Suits you if: You want a definite end date, the best available price, and you’re comfortable handing over control of what happens next.

The catch: Typically 70 to 80% is paid on completion with the balance deferred over twelve to twenty-four months against client retention, with clawback provisions if retention drops below around 80 to 85% (Miro Capital). You’re paid partly on how well someone else holds your clients.

Option 2 — Internal succession

You sell to existing partners, or develop a manager into an owner and transfer equity over time.

Timeframe: One to two years from initial discussions if you’ve planned properly (BOQ Specialist), but the development work behind it takes considerably longer.

Suits you if: Legacy and continuity matter more than maximising the lump sum, and you have a genuine candidate. Transition is smoothest here: the successor already knows the business, the clients and the culture, and the personal relationship survives the handover.

The catch: Two big ones. Excluding the largest firms, only around 20% of public practices have sufficient equity partners coming through (CPA Australia), so for most owners the candidate simply isn’t there. And a gradual internal transfer will rarely realise what an external sale would. Consider locking in candidates early with small equity stakes at 5 to 10%, increasing incrementally.

Option 3 — Merger

You combine with another practice, usually taking equity in the larger entity and stepping back over time.

Timeframe: One to five years from signing (BOQ Specialist).

Suits you if: You want to keep working but shed the ownership burden, and there’s a firm nearby with genuinely aligned culture, systems and client philosophy.

The catch: Mergers are difficult to arrange, requiring many elements of two businesses to align; staff, culture, technology, fee philosophy. And critically, if you’re not merging with a substantially larger firm, succession is merely deferred rather than solved. You’ve swapped one succession problem for a shared one.

Option 4 — Partial exit or fee parcel sale

You sell part of the practice, a fee parcel, a service line, or a percentage of equity and continue with a reduced load.

Timeframe: Often the quickest. A clean parcel of quality fees can move in weeks in the current market.

Suits you if: You’re not ready to stop, but you’re ready to do less. Also strong if you want to de-risk personal wealth held entirely inside the practice, or if you want to test the sale process before committing to a full exit.

The catch: You need to be able to cleanly separate what you’re selling; clients, work-in-progress, staff time without disrupting what you’re keeping. And selling your best fees first leaves you with a less valuable book for the eventual full exit. Sequence matters.

Option 5 — Orderly wind-up

You stop taking new work, transition clients to other practitioners, and close.

Suits you if: The practice is small, heavily personal, and genuinely wouldn’t attract a buyer or if health or circumstances have removed the path for anything else.

The catch: You realise little to no capital value from a lifetime of work. This should almost never be the plan. It is, however, quite often the outcome of not having one which is exactly why the timing question below matters more than the option question.

Which one is right?

Three questions usually settle it.

How involved do you want to stay? Not at all points to an outright sale. Somewhat, for a while, points to a merger or partial exit. Meaningfully involved but not in charge points to internal succession.

How much does the number matter? If the proceeds fund your retirement, an external sale tested against the market will almost always produce the most. If you have wealth outside the practice, you can afford to prioritise legacy.

Who’s behind you? If there’s a credible internal candidate, you have five options. If there isn’t, you have three.

And one observation worth sitting with: it’s often better for practitioners to accumulate wealth outside the practice than to let price prevent succession happening at all (CPA Australia). The owners who hold out for a number frequently end up at option five.

Whichever you choose, the timing is the same

Every one of these pathways is improved by time. Preparing a practice takes up to six months, transitions run six to twelve, and the structural work — reducing principal dependency, developing successors, refreshing the client base can take years.

Start when things are going well, not when your energy, your health or the market is in decline. That’s what gives you the thing that actually matters: choice.

Not sure which pathway fits?

The Practice Value & Readiness Scorecard scores your practice across the nine factors buyers assess and gives you an indicative value range. It won’t decide for you — but knowing what your practice is worth today is the input every one of these five decisions depends on.

Ten minutes, free, no firm details required.

Get the Practice Value & Readiness Scorecard

Or if you’d rather just talk it through confidentially, a twenty to thirty minute conversation costs nothing and commits you to nothing.

General information only — not financial, legal or valuation advice.