RETIREMENT - OR NOT - FOR CPAs: SURVEY

A survey of the accounting and financial industries by Robert Half Management Resources, a company that provides senior level personnel from those fields to organizations, found that most respondents were not planning to stop working when they reached the traditional retirement age.

*   Only 34% plan to quit working entirely.

*   24% said they planned to work at something new or switch fields.

*   14% said they would choose to work fewer hours for the same company.

*   14%  intend to work as consultants.

*   2% said they would take a part-time job or continue to work.

*   6% didn't know what they would do.

Based on the mobile professional work force (getting more mobile all the time), firms and other organizations are going to need to attract and retain these seasoned professionals to maintain their quality and headcount. As I described in an interview on succession planning for a an upcoming issue of Inside Public Accounting, most firms have not put succession planning or senior partner transitioning processes in place and have not prepared at all adequately for the large number of veteran professionals with institutional, technical and client knowledge they stand to lose if they don't do two things: take advantage of the desire of many to keep working longer than their predecessors; and make sure they transition their knowledge and clients to a properly prepared next generation.

Phyllis Weiss Haserot    www.pdcounsel.com